Keeping Faith
by chisscientist
Summary: Grand Admiral Thrawn survives Bilbringi but is critically injured, leaving Pellaeon in charge until he recovers. But can even Thrawn's brilliance and Pellaeon's quiet loyalty save the Empire from its own past? AU
1. Part One: Recovery

_Disclaimer: I am not George Lucas, and I do not own Star Wars. I am also not Timothy Zahn, and I do not own Thrawn, Pellaeon, the Chiss, or the Chimaera. I am making no money off this, so kindly don't sue me._

"But," Thrawn whispered, "it was so artistically done." He fell silent, the glow of his eyes fading. A puzzled expression came over his face. "_As'khemnir as ten fir_" he said. He closed his eyes. A few seconds later, he stopped breathing.

Security burst into the room, followed almost immediately by the medical staff. "Captain, are you injured?" one of the medics asked. Pellaeon shook his head.

"Captain Pellaeon?," the comm officer called urgently as the medical team arrived. "The _Nemesis_ and_ Stormhawk_ are requesting orders. What shall I tell them?"

Pellaeon looked up at the viewports. At the chaos that had erupted behind the defenses of the supposedly secure shipyards; at the unexpected need to split his forces to its defense; at the Rebel fleet taking full advantage of the diversion. In the blink of an eye, the universe had suddenly turned against them.

Thrawn could still have pulled an Imperial victory out of it. But he, Pellaeon, was not Thrawn. Pellaeon glanced at Thrawn, who was mostly hidden by the medics working on him. Alive or dead, he wouldn't be making any decisions right now. "Signal to all ships," he rasped. The words ached in his throat, in a way that had nothing to do with the throbbing pain of Rukh's treacherous attack. "Prepare to retreat."

Despite the disaster, there were still things that needed to be done. Rukh was intercepted by the stormtroopers in the hanger bay before he could make his escape. _Good._ And now, a call that must be made. "Sickbay, Captain Pellaeon speaking. Is the admiral alive?" Pellaeon was not sure what to expect. The medical staff could pull off miracles. But Thrawn had stopped breathing by the time the medical staff reached him, which was never a good sign.

"He is still in emergency, Sir. I do not know the exact details and I'd rather not interrupt the doctors." the person on the other end replied.

"Let them be. Get them to call me once he is stabilized, one way or the other." There was little else to be done until the _Chimaera_ came out of hyperspace, but Pellaeon did what there was mechanically. He had to think what to tell the others. If Thrawn were to survive, it would be better for no one off the _Chimaera_ to know the full details. What people did not know could not be leaked to the Rebels. But he had to tell them something, both to explain why he was currently running things, and what had happened at Bilbringi. Perhaps…a heart attack. The doctors were confident he would recover, but he needed absolute rest and must not be disturbed. That would explain things nicely, and had the advantage of being almost true. After all, Thrawn's heart did stop, even if the stop was caused by a Noghri dagger.

The _Chimaera_ left hyperspace. After that, everything became busy. Regroup. How many ships do we have, and what damage to each? Give out the heart attack explanation to the various captains, and tell them it is secret. Tell the most damaged ships to go to the nearest repair facility, no, Major, NOT Bilbringi. Call Wayland again. Just what is going on? The cloning chambers have exploded and are a mass of melted metal, glass and plastic. The rock of the mountain has fallen in in multiple places. Joruus C'Baoth is missing, presumed dead_. If C'Baoth is dead, that's the only good thing to come out of all this_, thought Pellaeon grimly. His head ached, as did his throat. His voice was going. The fleet jumped again, twice, to elude any pursuit by the Rebels.

Pellaeon had finally sat down to eat something, when Sickbay called. "And how is the grand admiral?", Pellaeon asked. "He is alive", answered the doctor. "However, he is still in critical condition. The Noghri used a rather unusual poison, and while we have come up with an antidote, we aren't entirely sure it will work. When paired with the damage to his pericardial cavity and spine, the prognosis is not very good. He is very lucky the dagger only nicked the heart itself."

Pellaeon blinked. "You mean Rukh missed?" he asked, startled. Rukh treacherous he could well believe, but incompetent?

"The Chiss have all their organs organized mirror-image to the human norm. They aren't common around here and medical information is even rarer than they are. It looks like Rukh was aiming for where the heart would have been if Thrawn was human. He'd have hit it dead on, then."

"Good thing he didn't. How long will it be before the Admiral recovers?" Pellaeon asked.

"It is hard to tell yet, sir. We aren't even sure he will survive. If he does, perhaps three months? As a very rough estimate. It could be twice that, but definitely not less than a month." The doctor answered.

"Well. Make sure I am informed of changes in his condition, especially when he regains conciousness. Pellaeon out."

Pellaeon leaned back, and sighed. At least Thrawn was not dead. So long as he survived, there would be another chance to beat the rebels. Of course, he might yet die, but it was better to operate on the assumption that he was going to survive. Three months was a long time, especially in the middle of a war. How long would it take the Rebels to find out what had happened and act on it? So long as they thought Thrawn was in command, they would be cautious, but they would be bound to find out eventually.

For now he should eat and get some rest, if he could. There was nothing now that could not be better done tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

There was a dark shape hiding in the greyness. Pellaeon knew it was out there, but he could not see it. Needle teeth, and huge eyes. Rukh. Pellaeon reached for his blaster, but it wasn't there. He was going to die, he just knew it. Then he saw Grand Admiral Thrawn. Thrawn was walking unconcernedly down towards him, and behind him was Rukh. Rukh pulled out his dagger, and poised it behind Thrawn's back. Pellaeon tried to cry out, but his mouth made no sound. He tried to run, but could not move. Rukh grinned lazily, and the dagger flashed down…

And Pellaeon woke, drenched in sweat. _What a nightmare. I'm glad I don't get those every night._ He rubbed his neck, which began to ache, and remembered the previous day. He groaned. Sometimes life was worse than one's dreams. He glanced at the clock. 3a.m.. He wasn't going to get back to sleep now. Still, he should probably try. After three hours of his mind running in useless circles, he got up.

Nothing much happened that day or the next. Thrawn remained unconscious, though the doctors assured Pellaeon that he was improving, and would likely survive. The mess on Wayland proved to be even worse than it looked, and almost completely unsalvageable. Pellaeon set the crews there to salvage the few cloning tanks that might be repairable, and getting them ready to be moved offplanet, since Wayland was now an obvious target for the New Republic. Joruus C'Baoth's body had been found buried under a pile of rubble. The rebels remained cautious, and did not attack. Pellaeon moved ships around, trying to make it look like the Empire had more ships on the borders than were actually there. The damaged ships received repairs, and the injured healed.

Four days later, Thrawn woke. Pellaeon was on the bridge at the time, and he could not resist grinning, when he received the call. The navigation officer gave him a rather odd look, so Pellaeon explained. "The grand admiral just regained consciousness." There was a resounding cheer. The stormtroopers standing guard outside the door stuck their heads in, shook them once, and looked out again. No threat here, unless you counted cheering bridge officers. Something interesting must have happened. Hopefully, they'd find out later.

Pellaeon left the bridge, and went to visit Sickbay. The medics were not particularly pleased to see him, and did not wish to let him see the admiral. It took Pellaeon nearly 10 minutes to persuade them that, no, he would not try to talk business with the Admiral, nor would he upset him by telling him what had happened at Bilbringi. Finally, they let him in.

Thrawn was in a private room, in a bed surrounded by biomonitoring equipment of various types, and with various lines hooked up to him. He opened his eyes as Pellaeon walked over to the side of the bed. The eyes were very dull, and his skin was pale and slightly greenish in tint, quite different from its normal blue color. He did not look well. "Hello, Admiral." said Pellaeon, feeling rather awkward.

Thrawn moved his head slightly and blinked. "Hello." he replied.

"It is good to see you, sir" ventured Pellaeon.

"_Chimaera_." said Thrawn. "You're Pellaeon."

"Yes" said Pellaeon. "I am Captain Pellaeon and you are in Sickbay on board the _Chimaera_."_ Oh dear, he's really out of it_, Pellaeon thought.

"Oh." said Thrawn. He closed his eyes again.

"Well... I just came by to see how you were. I'd better go now." said Pellaeon as he slipped out. _I hope that is just the drugs. That had better be temporary!_

On the way out, Pellaeon stopped to talk to the doctors. "He isn't going to be like this permanently, is he?" Pellaeon asked.

"Like what?" the doctor asked.

"All confused and slow" Pellaeon answered. "That is just the drugs, isn't it? No brain damage?"

"Oh that," the doctor replied. "No, that's pretty normal for coming round after a major operation, especially considering the anticonvulsants to counteract the nerve poison. He should be a lot more lucid in a few days."

"Good," said Pellaeon, feeling much relieved. He returned to his duties with a lightened heart. Now if the Rebels would just hold off a while longer, things might begin to become normal again.

Unfortunately, the Rebels were not in the business of making Captain Pellaeon's life easier. They attacked Wayland and Honoghr the next morning. Honoghr Pellaeon let them have without a fight. If they wanted the primitive and traitorous Noghri, fine and he wished them as much joy as he'd had dealing with them.

Wayland, however, was another matter. Even with the cloning facilities destroyed, some parts were salvageable, and the idea of the Rebels getting their hands on cloning technology made his blood run cold. There were quite enough rebels as it was.

Fortunately, he had already sent a sizeable force out there, including the _Chimaera_.


	3. Chapter 3

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Captain Pellaeon strode on to the bridge, and called for a tactical assessment.

"Four Starcruisers, a Star Galleon, and Three Assault Frigates. They haven't disgorged fighters yet." said Tschel, from tactical, while Pellaeon looked at the arrangement on the main display. Undoubtedly the rebels were here to take over what remained of the Mount Tantiss storehouse. Hopefully, they would be in for a nasty surprise.

"Contact the staff inside Mount Tantiss. Tell them to start operation Code C4 now, and evacuate as soon as that is in place. Also, tell them there may be fire from overhead." Pellaeon ordered.

Pellaeon then turned to directing the battle of the ships. The odds were two to one for the other side, and whoever was commanding them appeared to be doing a good job. If he stayed and defended honestly, sheer attrition would take care of the Imperials. He glanced at the report from the surface. Operation C4 should be complete in the next ten minutes. Good. What was needed right now was a little distraction for the Rebels to gain time to complete C4 and the evacuation. He ordered Major Terrace to take his Lancer and four squadrons of Tie fighters around behind the planet, go into hyperspace, head for the Interdictor cruiser, and attack a target of opportunity when they came back out. The Interdictor was engaged with a Star Cruiser, and the TIEs would be a welcome help.

Just under two minutes later, the ships attacked the Star Cruiser, which retreated. _Just a few minutes more... Just a few minutes more._ The crew were beginning to look nervous. _Honestly, I may not be Thrawn, but that doesn't mean I am incapable of running a battle_, thought Pellaeon irritably.

"Operation C4 completed, evacuation proceeding. Estimated time left 3.5 minutes." came the news from the planet.

"All TIEs not escorting evacuation craft to fall back to their main vessels. Lancers Anger and Legion fall back to the main position." Pellaeon ordered.

"Evacuation complete."

"Retreat above the solar plane and prepare a course for Myrkyr. Jump to hyperspace when ready." Pellaeon answered.

The Imperial ships winked out, leaving the Rebels in possession of Wayland. Five minutes later, Mt. Tantiss exploded.

Meanwhile, in sickbay... Thrawn could hear firing off in the distance. Someone was firing the ship's weapons. He hadn't ordered this. Thrawn struggled to sit up, but felt far too heavy, as if a weight was pressing on his chest, and his body didn't seem to respond properly. He gave up, and groped on the bedside table for his comlink. It wasn't there, and this was sickbay. Obviously, whatever was happening out out there was not under his command. Pellaeon must be doing it. _Good man, Pellaeon. Reliable, competent and honest, if not the most imaginative soul in the universe._ There was a peculiar hissing sound, but where it came from Thrawn could not tell. There was a dull thump, and the ship jerked. It hurt, and then there was someone leaning over him. Odd, they were surrounded by rainbows. That couldn't be right. The hissing sound grew louder. And then it all went dark.

The Rebels began to press in on the Empire's new territories. Not quickly or far, but a nibble here, a star system there. Pellaeon counterattacked a couple of times, one of which was a small but useful victory. It was not enough. Slowly but surely, the Empire was losing the initiative.

Thrawn's recovery was also slower than hoped. The doctors said that the convulsant poison that Rukh had used appeared to have stimulated epilepsy-like symptoms in the Admiral which were not aiding his recovery. Pellaeon's heart sank when he heard this. _Brain problems. Of all the medical problems for Grand Admiral Thrawn to acquire, this had to be the most inconvenient. Even if Thrawn was permanently stuck in a hover chair, he could still command, but if there was something wrong with his mind... that just wasn't replaceable._ The medics insisted that it was treatable, but that they had to move slowly because Thrawn wasn't human, and they weren't sure what effects the medications would have._ Of all the confounded annoying things to happen... you caused a truly Imperial mess, Rukh!_

And Pellaeon was running out of time. The Captains and Moffs both wanted to know how the Admiral was, and some of the Captains, especially Dorja, were mumbling complaints about why Pellaeon was running the show. After all, he was only a Captain wasn't he, same as the rest of them? It wasn't truly dangerous yet, but it soon would be. Meanwhile, on Coruscant, there was discussion in the Grand Council Chamber.

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Fortunately for Leia's peace of mind, Borsk Fey'lya was still being quiet, which kept the argument to a slightly more civilized level. At that, it grew quite heated enough once Akbar dropped his bombshell- that Thrawn did not appear to be currently in command of the Empire.

"The tactics being used are too straightforward. They are also less effective." Akbar rumbled. "Strategically, we have put the Empire on the defensive, and are currently reclaiming lost territory. I do not believe that Thrawn would allow us to do this without putting up a much better fight than this. I think that the Imperial Navy is playing for time. The timing of the change appears to come shortly before the end of the Battle of Bilbringi." Admiral Akbar stated. He gestured with a laser pointer at the display, which changed to the chaos in the Imperial forces shortly before they left. For three minutes during this chaos, there was no transmissions from the _Chimaera_. No orders. Then came one order, which my decrypters have managed to decode: 'Signal to all ships, prepare to retreat.' It also does not sound like Thrawn's voice. I think something happened to the Admiral during the battle of Bilbringi."

Leia stood. Akbar looked at her. "Yes?" he asked. "I think I may know what happened to Grand Admiral Thrawn. You remember that the Noghri joined the New Republic not long ago? Thrawn had a Noghri bodyguard." Leia sat back down and let that sink in.

The arguing continued for some time, but not before they decided that Admiral Akbar should try a larger scale campaign-something that Grand Admiral Thrawn must respond to, if he was able to do so.


	4. Chapter 4

Grand Admiral Thrawn was thoroughly bored. This meant that the sight of Captain Pellaeon entering his sickroom was most welcome. "Ah, Captain. It is good to see you," said Thrawn. "How goes the campaign? I'm afraid the medics haven't been very forthcoming in terms of information on current affairs."

Pellaeon smiled and relaxed visibly. "It is good to see you looking so well, Admiral." The smile faded somewhat. "How much have you been told about the current situation?"

"I know that Rukh tried to kill me and failed. I also gather that we lost Bilbringi and the cloning facilities on Wayland. What exactly happened there?"

"At Wayland? Several things, actually," Pellaeon answered. "Reports are somewhat confused, but it appears that Joruus C'Baoth helped a group of Rebels, Noghri and natives get in, and once in, they exploded the main cloning chamber, and had a battle in the Emperor's throne room. During the battle C'Baoth was killed and the room reduced to rubble, along with a fair portion of the mountain. We have managed to salvage a few of the cloning tanks and other materials that might be reparable. I have moved them off planet, but we were forced to destroy the rest when Admiral Akbar arrived with his forces. I thought preventing the Rebels from getting their hands on potentially workable cloning technology was the most important priority."

"I see. Are the Bilbringi shipyards still in Rebel hands?" asked Thrawn.

"Yes Sir."

"What else has happened while I've been ill?" Thrawn asked. _I suspected something like this because the nursing staff would not tell me what was going on. I wish they would understand that I'd worry less if I knew what was wrong. At least it would keep me from imagining steadily worse and worse possibilities!_

"We've gone on the defensive in most places. Our other losses include Honoghr, Myrkyr, and 13 minor systems. We did a couple of large hit-and-fades at Myrkyr and K'tal, which worked fairly well, and have kept the Rebels cautious so far. The fleet has suffered some losses, but is in the main intact. In my judgment, the most serious loss is the cloning facility."

Thrawn nodded. "In mine also. How are you finding dealing with the fleet captains?"

"So far, things have gone fairly well. We all want you back in command as soon as possible, of course."

Thrawn nodded. "Of course. However, I think you will find it easier to deal with them if you have the rank of Vice-Admiral. You have fully earned it." Thrawn smiled, then turned more serious "and stop blaming yourself for the debacles of the past while. The Noghri and C'Baoth's destruction of the cloning facility were my fault, not yours. Since the doctors won't let me out of here yet, I want to make sure you have the authority to get your orders obeyed."

"Thank you Sir," said Pellaeon, looking rather red. "I look forward to your being out of sickbay too."

They spoke for a few more minutes, and then the medics reminded Pellaeon that he wasn't to overtax Thrawn's strength. Pellaeon left.

Thrawn looked quietly at the door after Pellaeon left. The dull headache was back again. Really, he was lucky to have a second in command like Pellaeon. Of course, that was why he'd picked Pellaeon in the first place. What a mess. The Rebel lack of activity couldn't last much longer either, could it? Without a source of decent information, there was no way for him to know. While he could have asked Pellaeon for computer access, the medics were probably right when they said it would be bad for him. He'd always had a tendency to overwork. For now though, his work was to rest. That might also get rid of the headache.

---------------

The announcement of Pellaeon's promotion caused some trouble of its own with the other Captains. Dorja in particular was upset. "If Thrawn is well enough to be promoting you, why isn't he back in command? I want proof that he is alive and in his right mind!" It took a good deal of patience on Pellaeon's part to get the Captains to accept his command for now, and to trust that Thrawn would definitely be back in command within the next month.

Pellaeon was making a bit of a guess with that estimate. While Thrawn was recovering well for the most part, sitting up in bed and arguing the doctors into giving him computer access, he was still having trouble with seizures. It would be very bad if he had one of those in the middle of a battle.

That particular argument past, there were now the Moffs to deal with. If Pellaeon had thought the Captains were hard to deal with, the Moffs were worse. There were a couple that had been hardly better than warlords when Thrawn had talked them into joining him. These no longer even bothered to reply to Pellaeon's messages, as it was only Thrawn's apparent invincibility that had convinced them to rejoin the empire in the first place. Some of the rest seemed to hope that Thrawn was permanently out of action, and were spending all their energy increasing their importance in their own private realms of influence. Fortunately it wasn't tax time yet. Pellaeon wondered how many would actually send anything at all, and how many of those who did would send less than half of what they owed. All in all, it made Pellaeon's blood boil. Why were so many politicians squabbling idiots who cared about nothing but their own short-term interests? Hopefully Thrawn would be able to fix the situation soon, because the Moffs simply weren't listening to him.

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For Grand Admiral Thrawn, life was somewhat more interesting now that he had his computer access back. The medics still didn't want him walking around because of the strain that put on his heart, but there was lots one could do with a computer. He was looking at the favorite artwork of his enemies again, in particular that of Leia Organa Solo and Alderaan. Obviously, he had missed something earlier. He hadn't expected her to visit the Noghri and persuade them to switch sides. It was an act so rash it bordered on the illogical, and while Leia was known for her courage she usually acted with more caution. _In fact, it was Jedi-like. Maybe I underestimated Luke's influence on her. I could imagine him trying to pull a stunt like that, though probably not succeeding. He does not have the political skills necessary. Or perhaps her own force abilities gave her a nudge. I had thought it took more training before such abilities became usable. Interesting. Note to self: Leia's force abilities cause her to act erratically compared to normal people. Do not expect her to act solely on cues visible to me. How irritating. Another source of potential error: Half-trained Jedi politicians_.

_The Noghri. Ironic how my death had nearly been wrought by the victims of the Empire. Perfectly appropriate for Tarkin or Pitta, with their contempt for all aliens, but for me? I remember when I first joined the Empire. I was so impressed that I had found a government where multiple species lived together, without one enslaving the others. Of course, even then it had been obvious that humans were the dominant species, but other species, even weak ones that could not have defended themselves were safe, and together they formed a civilization with the strength to defend itself against almost any adversary. My own people would not extend their hand to protect even the weakest of their next-door neighbours from known pirates! I saw what I wanted to see. The repression present at the beginning worsened with time. _

_By then, of course, I was exiled and the Empire was my home. I lacked the power to change the Emperor's ways. Granted, I built the Empire of the Hand along my own lines- and proved that a strong government over multiple species was possible without tyranny, but Palpatine was so locked in his own ways he did not care what actually worked. In order to stay alive and effectively protect the Empire I took on the colours of_ t_hose around me, pretended to a harshness I did not feel, and a contempt I did not have. The Noghri were useful to me. Why change something that works? I told myself I would change it later, after I had secured the Empire. After all, there were many peoples who had been poorly treated by the Empire. I could not possibly fix all the problems overnight. Still, it was one of the worst that I was closely involved in, I had neglected to fix it, and it nearly destroyed me. I did not keep faith with them._

_Perhaps the Empire is too far gone to save. That has always been my worst fear- that the Empire will destroy itself before it could become what it has the potential to be. And then the petty wars will begin again, killing here and there, each small, but hundreds and thousands of them. When the far outsiders return, they will take over, and be a far worse government than the Empire could ever be. But our own faults are destroying us, leaving us open to a Rebellion that simply isn't capable of running something the size of the Galactic Empire. _

_There is no point to dwelling on this. Despair will not rescue the Empire, and there is no one else to do what needs to be done. Now, Akbar. When will the Rebellion attack? _


	5. Chapter 5

A week after Admiral Akbar's meeting with the Councillors of the New Republic, as Pellaeon strove with Moffs and Captains, and as Thrawn strove to both recover and keep track of the ambitions of the New Republic, the attack came.

Kuat shipyards, Kuat Drive Station 5. Thrawn caught the news on his computer, and knew it was the real thing this time-but knowing Akbar the attack on the outer station would be a feint, and the main attack would be on one or more of the inner stations, probably to KDS 7 or 8, since they were not close to any of the planetary gravity wells. He must let Pellaeon know. He opened a channel to the bridge. Pellaeon was there, and already dealing with the situation. _Good._ Thrawn explained his suspicion on where the main attack would fall, then left the line open so he could hear what was going on. Pellaeon had a good grasp of the situation, and there were plenty of ships to deal with what Akbar would probably throw at them. After all, Akbar would not want to leave Coruscant bare and Kuat lay in one of the most heavily guarded Imperial areas, besides having two Star Destroyers, 3 frigates and 11 battlestations permanently in system._ Just keep an eye on the situation and offer suggestions if Pellaeon appears to need them,_ Thrawn reminded himself. _I'm not in command of this battle due to medical reasons, remember?_ The Chimaera entered hyperspace.

A medical officer leaned over his shoulder and complained. "Admiral, you are in bed because of a heart injury and siezures. You should not be commanding a battle!" He reached forward as if to turn the computer off. Thrawn grabbed his outstretched hand.

"That will not be necessary. I am not commanding a battle, I am merely keeping an eye on it and offering suggestions when needed. I feel no chest pains, hear no hissing sounds and see no rainbows. If you must, you may look over my shoulder and watch, but I will not stop." Thrawn released the medic's hand and turned back to the computer.

The medic made a frustrated noise but obeyed.

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In the Kuat system itself, Admiral Akbar's main force came out of hyperspace. They came out by KDS 8. Eight star cruisers, and some 15 smaller vessels. Captain Temiz swore internally. How had Pellaeon known? Still, at least he was in the right place to annoy them, and the first reinforcements should be arriving in system within 5 minutes.

At that moment, three Star Destroyers flickered into existence. More would follow. Temiz smiled. This time, the Rebels had overreached themselves.

The fighting began in earnest around KDS 8. The Rebels attacked fiercely, with almost all their ships concentrated on one angle. There was no way the _Brightsword_ could stave all of them off, so she was forced to go into evasive maneuvers between KDS 8 and the oncoming fleet. The enemy commander simply rerouted four ships around the other side but underneath the battlestation. Two of the three new Star Destroyers followed, and a firefight broke out. Temiz was too busy trying to keep his own ship in one piece, however, to pay much attention. Alarms sounded, and shielding was down to 20. Damage reports came and went. Other Imperial ships had joined the fight, but the Rebel ships nearest the _Brightsword_ were concentrating on the damaged vessel. If she stayed here, the _Brightsword_ would definitely be destroyed. _Time to go._ "Go down to the south station pole, head out and to hyperspace," Temiz ordered. _Let's just hope I haven't left it too late._

The _Chimaera_ arrived just as a large explosion marked where the _Brightsword_ had been.

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Within an hour of its start, the battle was over. Losses: one star destroyer, two frigates, one badly damaged but repairable battlestation, and 51 TIEs. _Not good, but at least the shipyards are safe_, Pellaeon thought. More ships could be built, though they would still have to find the people to crew them. The Rebels had taken losses too, though somewhat less than the Imperials. The Rebels had jumped out once the main fleet arrived, except for the one damaged Mon Calamarian cruiser, which had surrendered as soon as the others left. It had been good to have the comments from Thrawn. Hopefully he would be fully back in command soon, and then... he could almost feel sorry for the Rebels. _Almost_.

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Thrawn turned off the computer, and lay back down with a sigh, and noted with some amusement that the medic was still standing there. Ah well, their loyalty and solicitousness was commendable, even if it was irritating. He'd be rid of it soon enough in any case.


	6. Chapter 6

Two days later, Thrawn left sickbay for a visit to the bridge. It was not a long walk, fortunately, and it was important to show his bridge officers that he was still alive and in one piece. He seemed to have acquired a tail-of stormtroopers and a medic. Ah well, the medic at least could wait outside the bridge.

The door hissed its way open, and Thrawn stepped through. The bridge was orderly, with the various personnel sitting quietly at their stations, watching the screens or industriously tapping keys. A few looked up as he came in, their eyes widening and various delighted smiles, sudden stiffenings or nervousness as the personality of each dictated. Bridge Commander Quenten greeted him, "Admiral, it is good to see you back in action again." Thrawn replied "It is good to be back. I am planning for the next stages in the defeat of the Rebels, since circumstances have changed somewhat since I last had the chance. It is good to know I have such capable people working for me, even when I am not there to watch them." Thrawn also made a few minor inquiries about various matters, and then left, heading back to sickbay. It was a good thing it wasn't a long walk, as he was getting very tired. A worthwhile visit though, for raising morale and killing rumors about his death.

Apart from visiting the bridge, Thrawn checked artwork and intelligence reports, planned, met with Pellaeon, and organized a meeting with the Moffs, who, it appeared, would not cooperate until he personally arrived and made them. The sooner the better, before they got up to too much mischief. _Short-sighted, venal, selfish people!_ Still, those very characteristics made them easier to manipulate and meant they had to have a strong leader. The more intelligent ones realized this too, and would cooperate with him. It shouldn't be too difficult. All he really had to do was look strong, and make it clear that if Moff Chulau proceeded with the blockade of Kitsik he would see personally to its removal. Of course, there were a few other minor items, but the main thing he had to do was be seen to be alive and in control of the situation. Tiresome, but not precisely difficult. In any case it was not for three days yet.

Two days later, Thrawn had a good idea that the next Rebel attack would fall on Yinchorr. An odd choice at first glance, since the Imperial Guard training facility located there had not been used in years and there was nothing else there of any importance. Shili was another possibility, although somewhat less likely. The next question was whether it would be better to trap the Rebel fleet at Yinchorr, or attack elsewhere first. It might be better to attack first, since it was not absolutely sure that they would attack there. A pity Delta Source had been destroyed. The door opened. Pellaeon must have arrived. "Do come in, Captain," Thrawn said.

Pellaeon entered the Command room and looked around, probably wondering which world's artwork Thrawn was studying now.

Thrawn started to say something about Yinchorr, but stopped, staring quietly at a rather unusual piece of art. It flashed softly, and shimmered in many different colours. Rather hypnotic really. He sat quite still in his command chair, staring.

After about 15 seconds, Pellaeon began to get nervous. "Admiral, are you feeling well?" No answer. "Should I call medical?" Still no answer. Thrawn's mouth opened slightly, then snapped shut and his eyes blazed very brightly, still staring, but with his eyes now pointing slightly to the left of the painting. Pellaeon called medical.

"I think Grand Admiral Thrawn is having a seizure," said Pellaeon. "He needs medical assistance now."

"We already have a team on the way." answered a calm, medical-sounding voice. "Watch him, and don't let him hurt himself. What is he doing right now?"

"He's staring into space and doesn't respond when I speak to him. He's also taut, and now he's 'shaking'." Pellaeon answered as calmly as he could. _Not again, he can't die in front of me, not after surviving Rukh's attack and everything!_

"Okay. If he's standing, get him to lie down, or he might fall."

"He's sitting down." said Pellaeon. There was a sound of feet at the door, and the medical team entered, followed by both Stormtrooper guards. "The medical team is here now," he told the com medic, feeling a wave of relief that Thrawn was now in good hands.

"Good. He should be fine then. He's had seizures before and come out of them without complications."

The medics got Thrawn out of the chair and put him on the hoverbed just as the twitching turned into outright convulsions. The medics did something Pellaon didn't see, and within a minute the convulsions died down, and Thrawn lay still.

One of the Stormtroopers walked up to Pellaeon, and asked "Excuse me Sir, but why didn't you tell us the Admiral was having a seizure? We were assigned to guard him because we have training in handling seizures, and we were right outside the door!"

"Nobody informed me of that," Pellaeon answered. "I'll be sure to call you in first if this happens again."

Pellaeon looked over at Thrawn, who was now lying quietly and breathing regularly. "What happens now?" he asked the medics.

"We stay with him until he wakes up, or until complications develop, in which case we take him to sickbay. However, his brainwave patterns are returning to normal, so I don't think that will be necessary."

"Will he be able to return to duty tomorrow?" Pellaeon asked. "There is an important meeting with the Moffs tomorrow morning that he is not going to want canceled."

"Well..." said the medic, "normally I would say probably, but he isn't fully recovered from his injuries yet. You are going to have to wait to see how he is once he wakes up, and how he is tomorrow. His seizures haven't settled into a given pattern, so we can't make predictions."

"You mean this is likely to keep happening?" asked Pellaeon. "I was told earlier that the seizures were caused by the poison Rukh used!"

"We aren't quite sure yet..."

"I'm his second in command - I need to know if he's going to be incapacitated at random intervals for the foreseeable future!"

"There is a history of epilepsy in his family. While the Grand Admiral has shown no signs of it before, the poison seems to have triggered its onset. The poison is out of his system, and the seizures ought to have stopped by now, if they were poison-induced alone."

"I thought epilepsy was easily curable with half-decent medication!" Pellaeon replied. _Why hasn't this problem been fixed?_

The chief medic reddened slightly, but replied "You try fixing a brain disorder in a nonhuman species about which little is known, when the patient is a Grand Admiral whose brain function must not be adversely affected, when most medications tend to make the patient less alert than normal, and when he flatly refuses to take medications that make him feel stupid! It is not easy!"

At this point the medic who was still watching Thrawn intervened. "Excuse me, Sir, but the Admiral's waking up, and I think he has a headache."

Pellaeon forced himself to calm down. At times like this he always envied Thrawn his ability to remain calm. Also, shouting wouldn't fix the problem.

By the following morning, Thrawn was alert although somewhat tired, and had decided to go through with the meeting.

---------------------------


	7. Chapter 7

As the meeting opened, Thrawn looked around at the Moffs and the few other miscellaneous political entities. Either covertly or openly, all of the people there were watching him, looking for any weakness. Well, he'd just have to make sure they didn't find any.

The meeting started, and with it the questions. "Grand Admiral Thrawn, do you have any plans to reverse the recent setbacks?

"Certainly", said Thrawn. _And if I were not reassuring you lot, I could be improving on them_. "You will see the results soon enough."

"How soon?" asked Moff Rintalen. "The rebels are getting awfully close to my sector. What if they attack?" He twisted his hands together, and waited.

"I do not think your sector is a primary target for the Rebels at the moment, Moff Rintalen. However, if they do launch a major attack there, you may be sure that I will be present to meet them."

"I hesistate to mention this", said Moff Disra, "but I understand that your Noghri bodyguard tried to kill you at Bilbringi. Are you adequately protected against Rebel and/or Noghri assassins? You make a very tempting target."

"Security measures are being taken, but I am sure you will understand I cannot explain the details here." _Somehow, I am not surprised someone saw through Pellaeon's "he had a heart attack" explanation. _.

"Of course, Admiral. I merely thought it should be mentioned, for we certainly would not want anything to happen to you." replied Disra.

_No, you just wish to increase your own power among the other Moffs by whatever means you can find_, thought Thrawn. _I love you too, Disra, may you be trapped by one of your own schemes one day_. "Of course", answered Thrawn. Beside him, Pellaeon twitched. Silence reigned for a few seconds, and then Moff Sandar piped up.

"I thought you had a heart attack", he said.

"Indeed I did, replied Thrawn, smiling. "It was induced by a Noghri dagger. As you can see, I am now back at work. Now that we have established that I am indeed functional and fully intend to remain so... Moff Chulau, you are currently blockading Kitsik. Kindly explain yourself. Now." Out of the corner of his eye, Thrawn noticed Moff Lin smiling avidly, waiting for his old adversary to be soundly embarrassed. Never mind, it would be Lin's turn soon enough.

"Kitsik has been selling unsafe plasteel alloys to planets in my sector. They proceeded to smuggle them in among other cargo after I banned them, so I have put the planet under blockade." Moff Chulau said. While he appeared self-righteously confident, Thrawn could see from the tightness around his eyes that it was an act.

"That is most odd." Thrawn replied. "I was under the impression that they have been certified by the Imperial Safety Board. I also notice that they were being sold to Moff Rintalen's sector, as well as the Imperial Navy. Neither have reported problems. Precisely what problems have occurred in your sector?"

"Well, they were various, but there were gas bubble flaws in the coating that exploded when the material was placed in vacuum." Moff Chulau answered.

"Indeed. How unusual. I was given to understand that the manufacturer produces them under vacuum conditions. What other flaws did your inspectors find?" asked Thrawn, smiling slightly.

"I'm not an engineer Sir, I don't know!"

"In that case, until you find a flaw that can be demonstrated to exist, and shown to the Imperial Safety Board, I declare the blockade of Kitsik over." Thrawn gave Moff Chulau a slit-eyed glare. "If you have trouble ending the blockade due, perhaps, to mysterious ship or communication malfunctions, I would be happy to have the Imperial Navy repair them for you. Of course, they would thereafter join the Navy in the war against the Rebellion."

Thrawn turned to Moff Lin, who was looking most satisfied. "While I have heard of no safety problems with the plasteel or its coatings from a reliable source, I have heard certain allegations of dumping, and of using slave labour to produce both the plasteel and hyperdrives for the TIE Advanced. While the quality of the plasteel is currently good, the hyperdrives have shown signs of sabotage. As this damages the Imperial military, and human slavery is still technically illegal under law C129b, you will release them, human and nonhuman alike, and pay those who choose to remain a fair wage."

Moff Lin looked astonished. "I was only trying to save the Imperial military money, to help in the war effort!"

"I do appreciate your efforts in that direction, Moff Lin, but I also value the lives who serve under me highly, and forcing them to use sabotaged equipment in order to save a few credits is neither cost-effective nor fair to those who risk their lives for the Empire."

Moff Lin grew rather red, and muttered something along the lines of "I suppose so."

"It is perhaps time for me to make a point. The war with the Rebellion is not over. It is continuing, and a great many people are giving their lives in order to achieve victory. In these circumstances, I will not tolerate profiteering on war supplies, tax evasions that reduce our ability to fight, and corruption scandals that embarrass this government in front of its citizens. Such activities will henceforth be treated as treasonous. Slavery is hereby banned from installations producing goods for the Imperial Military."

"Does anyone else have any business they wish to bring before this group?" Thrawn asked. No one replied.

"In that case, meeting dismissed."

Thrawn remained seated as the various Moffs began to leave. Pellaeon leaned over, and asked quietly, "Admiral, do you need assistance?"

"I think I may need a hand up. I'm just tired, nothing worse." Pellaeon gave Thrawn a hand up out of the chair. Thrawn steadied himself for a moment, then walked across the room and through the door unaided. It would be good to get back to the _Chimaera_ and rest.

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	8. Chapter 8

Since Thrawn still was not certain whether the Rebels would attack Yinchorr or Shili, Thrawn set up an ambush on both, including an Interdictor cruiser at each, with the main portion of the mobile fleet stationed in between. The two planets were, after all, almost next door neighbors on a galactic scale and it would take mere minutes to reach either one from the midpoint position.

However, it appeared that the Rebel spy network was improving. There was no attack on either place. There was no attack elsewhere either. Well, if the Rebels weren't about to fight, it was up to the Imperials to bring the battle to them. Thrawn had some ideas of his own on that subject...in particular, Bilbringi. The Rebels might think they had the planet and its valuable shipyards secure, but there was something they didn't know. Thrawn had left a cloaked battlestation behind. It was originally intended to be used during the previous battle if things had gotten difficult, but there hadn't been time when Thrawn was attacked. Pellaeon hadn't known it was there, and so had not brought it into the battle. _I really ought to have told him. Given these annoying seizures, I will have to take him more into my confidence because he will be carrying out my plans if I am incapacitated. Still, the battlestation should be useful._ There was also the psychological effect of turning the Rebel's recent victory against them. That would be worth nearly as much as the shipyards themselves.

Thrawn threw himself into planning for the battle, and into planning the series of small attacks elsewhere designed to keep the Rebels offbalance and unwilling to start a major offensive campaign. Pellaeon was often with him, and Thrawn delegated some of his simpler duties onto Pellaeon's shoulders. That left Thrawn free to do more of the thinking and planning he was so good at, and also more time for sleep. While his injuries were now healed, he still did not have his stamina back and could not work for as long without becoming exhausted and brain-befogged.

Another seizure occurred, but it was not a serious one. However, he acceded to medical's suggestion that he get his quarters renovated, adding padded carpets to the floor and rounded corners to any pointed objects. It looked rather silly and most inartistic, but at least if he had a seizure and fell he would be less likely to injure himself.

The Chiss neurologist Thrawn had requested finally arrived from the Empire of the Hand, which entailed another round of questions, medical tests and "lets try you on this medicine and see if it makes you sleepy, and if it prevents seizures in your case". Thrawn spent a lot of time yawning after that, and trying to concentrate on important battle preparations. In one particularly embarrassing instance, he fell asleep while discussing business. Granted, it was discussing supplies and fuel, never the most exciting of subjects, but still... Especially when he woke some three hours later to find a note from Pellaeon saying he'd handled the supplies, and suggesting Thrawn get more rest. They'd better find medications that worked soon, before he had an seizure or fell asleep somewhere it couldn't be hushed up, or the whole galaxy would know about it. The media, the Rebels, and some of the Moffs would really enjoy that. He had spent a lot of time convincing the Rebels that he was invincible, and this knowledge of his physical frailty would not help the illusion hold. What there was left of the illusion, that is, after Bilbringi, Wayland and subsequent events.

The diversionary attacks began. The Rebels found themselves chasing other Rebels on one particular occasion, whereupon they retreated in confusion, only to sort themselves out the following day. Pellaeon asked if Thrawn wanted the _Relentless_ to take the system for the Imperials, but Thrawn refused. There was nothing inherently valuable in the system, and it was not strategically valuable, so there was no point the Imperials spreading themselves thin to capture and hold it. It would fall again in due time, when the Imperials were ready for it.

Meanwhile, the planning for the Bilbringi attack continued.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"I want Captain Dorja to take the Aphran relay station operation." Thrawn told Pellaeon. "You cannot be there and at Bilbringi at the same time, and I want you at Bilbringi in case I have a seizure. Dorja's experienced enough to handle a small independent command."

Pellaeon nodded. "How likely are you to have a seizure, Sir?"

"Not too likely, but it is possible, so it is best to be prepared." Thrawn switched the view of the screen to show the Bilbringi shipyards, complete with the positions of the new rebel defenses, such as they were. Thrawn tapped a key, and another Golan defense battle station appeared suddenly behind the other two, in between the separate components of the shipyards. "We left this behind during the last battle," Thrawn said. "It is fully crewed, cloaked, and is currently behind the Rebel lines." Thrawn smiled wolfishly, and added "One of the most important parts of this battle is going to be timing when the station appears so as to cause maximum confusion."

Pellaeon looked at the screen and frowned. "While the station's position is ideal for creating confusion, isn't it also in the ideal place to damage the shipyards?" he asked.

"Since Kuat is still operational, as well as the Katana dreadnoughts, it is not vital that Bilbringi be operational immediately, especially now that we must train new recruits rather than cloning them. So long as we don't wreck the main infrastructure, Bilbringi retains its value."

Pellaeon nodded again. "That makes sense."

The planning session continued for some time. Pellaeon had noticed earlier that Thrawn was including him in the planning more, and giving him more direct mentoring than he had received previously. While it was definitely flattering, he often found himself mentally exhausted by the end of these sessions, and had resorted to bringing a recorder with him to ensure he did not forget anything vital due to sheer overload. Then there was all the regular work of a starship captain... Pellaeon found himself delegating some of his routine work to bridge commander Quenten through sheer necessity. Fortunately the man was competent.

------------------------

Finally, the day of the battle began. Pellaeon was on the bridge waiting when Thrawn arrived, looking immaculate and calm as usual. Pellaeon wondered how he managed it. He had never been particularly good at hiding his feelings, and if he had to deal with having seizures while directing a war he was sure he would be so nervous even a stormtrooper would comment.

Thrawn asked "Is my flagship ready?"

"Yes Sir." Pellaeon answered.

"Then set course for Bilbringi."

----------------

The Imperial Fleet came out as planned, and fell upon the Rebel ships. Pellaeon was glad to see that the Rebel ships were approximately where they were expected to be, and in the correct numbers. They were badly outnumbered by the Imperials. So long as everything went according to plan, the Rebels should be easily destroyed.

----------------------

Startled by arrival of the Imperials, the Rebels tried to send a message through Aphran relay station, but heard nothing except static, even from the lone one of their ships that was outside jamming range. Did that mean that the relay station was down? With no way to contact their allies, they were on their own. The Imperial forces quickly forced the much smaller Rebel force back , where the Rebels began to use the somewhat damaged pair of Golan 2 battle stations as cover.

The Imperial fleet did not approach closely, but hovered just outside the Rebel's firing range. Captain Royl of the New Republic Fleet wondered why this should be. They were few enough for the Imperials to take them out quickly, if they rushed the battle stations. They might lose a couple of their smaller ships, but would certainly succeed. Still, if they wanted to waste time, that was fine by him. If the Imperials waited long enough perhaps some New Republic reinforcements would show up.

A minute and a half passed, and then something hit them from behind, hard. Captain Royl grabbed his chair to keep from falling over, and demanded to know what was going on. "There's a battle station behind us, and it just opened fire!" yelled a Lieutenant. "What!" replied Captain Royl. "Move to the side, put the damaged battle station between us and the active one. Order the other ships to do likewise." Royl turned to check the situation. The Imperial ships were now headed straight for their weakened center in front of the battle station, and before his very eyes the New Republic forces split in two. Another shot hit his ship, then another and another. Alarm sirens began to sound, and he could smell burning electronics. The lights and power went out, including the gravity. Abruptly the firing stopped, and everything went still, save for the sirens. The boards were all completely blank, then flickered back on. They were now surrounded by the Imperials. Captain Royl gulped, then flicked on the comm.

----------------

"We are being hailed" informed Lieutenant Tschel. "Open the channel" ordered Thrawn.

A rebel officer appeared, a Captain from his rank bars, looking bewildered. He stared at Thrawn, then blurted "You again! I thought you were dead!"

"You were mistaken." said Thrawn, his eyes sparkling although his mouth did not smile. "I am, in fact, very much alive."

The officer visibly collected his wits before asking "what are your terms for surrender?"

"Surrender now, and you and those serving under you will be debriefed only, rather than being given a full interrogation or executed. You will be asked to swear never to take up arms against the Empire again. If you swear to this, you may go free. If you choose not to, you will spend the rest of your life mining in a prison camp." Thrawn's eyes narrowed. "If you swear and then break your oath, we will kill you without mercy the next time we capture you."

The Rebel officer hesitated only a moment before answering: "we surrender."

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_A/N At the request of some of my readers, I have extended this chapter. I hope this is better. Do let me know if you like/dislike the change._


	10. Intermission

And so Bilbringi returned to Imperial hands. By five months after Bilbringi's return to the Empire, the situation had changed completely.

The New Republic's ascendance had ended, and the Rebels were forced back, and back, and back, losing ships and their crews as they went, some to captivity and some to death. As Rebel fortunes darkened, people and systems began to desert, some reapplying for admission to the Empire, which Thrawn swiftly granted.

While the Rebels still held Coruscant, most of the important nearby planets had fallen to the Empire, and it seemed only a matter of time before Coruscant fell. Panic had taken deep root in Rebel councils, and there were arguments about whether the seat of government should be moved to somewhere safer. Some of the more easily frightened counselors ceased coming to Coruscant, leaving their seats vacant. Unknown to the rest of the New Republic, the Bothans had entered into secret negotiations with the Empire.

In the Empire meanwhile, hopes were high as people saw the New Republic wavering. On board the Chimaera, morale was as high as it had ever been, and few doubted that the Empire would soon rule the galaxy once again.

In an odd corner of the Empire, however, an event occurred that would shake both Thrawn's empire and the New Republic to their very foundations.


	11. Part Two: Facing the Darkness

Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I am not George Lucas, Timothy Zahn, Cam Kennedy or Tom Veitch, and therefore I don't own the Star Wars galaxy, Thrawn, Pellaeon, Luke, Leia, Mara, the Reborn (or any other) Palpatine, or the Force. Don't bother suing me, as I don't make any money from this anyway._

Thrawn stared at the message on his screen, unwilling to believe the message, although he knew Relkati would not lie to him and was not easily deceived. The message read:

Palpatine has been cloned successfully on Byss. Everyone is saying he has been "reborn", but I know for a fact that he was cloned because I saw the tanks. There are more unawakened clones in varying stages of development in the Browyn catacombs. The active one can definitely use the force to call lightning, and he appears to read minds. For that reason, I have avoided getting close to him. He is planning to have you killed because your success now stands in his path to power. I couldn't get close enough to hear the details, but it involved one of the Hands. I hope this message has reached you. I would have come myself, but I thought having an agent in place might be more useful to you. Please reply, or I will come in person.

Remember Erixitl and the Tarrogan? You know who I am. Do not trust the Palpatine clone!

_A clone of Palpatine, alive, on Byss._ Thrawn had always wondered if Palpatine had made more use of Byss than simply as a private retreat, and now his suspicions had been proven. Unfortunately, they had been proven too late for this situation to be prevented. There would be trouble. He had some thinking to do.

_The Emperor's intent to kill me is not precisely surprising, unfortunately. Concepts of faith and loyalty always did run one way only for him – to himself, with himself showing loyalty to none. It is the nature of a Sith Lord, after all._

_What are the likely consequences of the clone's appearance for the Empire? As a clone, he is likely to be less competent and less stable than the original. If the clone was started after Palpatine's death, then it would have had no more than five years growing time. This would provide enough time to produce a fairly stable clone, presuming a stable original. However, in Palpatine's case this is not a very safe assumption. Even if the clone did miraculously turn out exactly like the original, this did not mean the ascent of this clone to power would benefit the galaxy. _

_In fact, the most likely possibility was that the clone would start a civil war within the Empire which would completely destroy it, since both he and I have rather partisan loyalists. Even if Palpatine succeeded in having me killed, or I let myself be killed, this might still upset enough Imperials, either from genuine horror, from fear they would be next to die, or because it provided a good excuse for starting their own kingdoms, to cause the Empire to disintegrate. That would not be an improvement, and on a purely selfish note I like being alive and would prefer to stay that way. _

_Disappearing might be possible, but would not be easy. It might be possible to meet him at Byss and persuade him I mean no threat and will be loyal to him. However, in the long term, I do not think this would be best for the galaxy._

_Palpatine was never a good ruler. He was a superb politician and a manipulator par exellance, but he never grasped that respect and fear were not the same thing. His own harshness caused the rebellion to go from minor discontent to a life-threatening disorder. I wish the Empire had someone like my brother Thrass. He could manage not only to get people to do as he wished but convince them that they liked doing it. Of course, whenever anyone with that sort of ability showed up Palpatine either corrupted them until they were as bad as he was, or had them killed. As long as Palpatine in some form or other rules the Empire, the Empire will never achieve its potential._

_I must try to find a way to destroy this clone before he destroys the Empire. Of course, if I do this openly, it will cause a civil war. There must be a way... I will not allow him to destroy all I and so many others have worked for and leave us more in danger from the Far Outsiders than ever._

_If an Emperor's Hand is trying to kill me, I will need better bodyguards than ordinary stormtroopers. While I am sure that Loril and Nir are loyal to me personally, they are unlikely to be able to hold out against a force wielder. Stormtroopers in general will be a problem. Older stormtroopers will have been brainwashed with overwhelming personal loyalty to Palpatine, so I will not be able to trust them in any conflict where this Palpatine clone is on the other side. Of course, this nullifies the main value of stormtroopers over ordinary soldiers, which is their unquestioned and unquestioning loyalty. _

At that moment, one of the Stormtroopers knocked, and announced Vice-Admiral Pellaeon's presence. Thrawn turned to deal with the matter at hand, which turned out to be an embassy from Ketain petitioning for a return to the Empire.

------------------------------------

Alone that evening, Thrawn continued to think, and to plan. The ideal situation would be if he could assassinate the Palpatine clone without anyone knowing._ It would also be necessary to destroy the replacement clones and the personality template to prevent Palpatine from "returning" repeatedly. If this ever became public knowledge it could provide a rallying cry for my enemies within the Empire, especially the ones who still regard Palpatine with almost religious devotion. It is also one of the few things that could render stormtroopers unreliable en masse. Ironically, the Rebels could also use it as propaganda on how evil Imperials in general and myself in particular are. Not that they need much after the Noghri episode._

_The other main option would be to let the attempt on my life occur and fail. I could easily use that as propaganda. Two drawbacks to this: without the Noghri an Emperor's hand would have a good chance of succeeding, and waiting gives Palpatine more time to establish himself. It would be better to force a confrontation at a place and time where I expect it and have the advantage. For that matter, it would be useful to leak this information to the Rebels, especially the Skywalker allies. They would have an interest in seeing Palpatine dead, even if they would not wish to be seen working with the enemy. This will bear further investigation. They might also be happy to take the blame, or as they would see it, the credit, for Palpatine's death. If I can pin the blame on them, that would drastically reduce the chances of an intra-Imperial civil war._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

On the surface, nothing changed for the next few days. Below the surface, however, was another matter. Thrawn did warn Loril and Nir that there was an assassination threat from an unidentified force wielder and had Nir carry a Ysalamir as he guarded Thrawn. Thrawn first confirmed the information he had received, and then sent emissaries and spies to various useful places, as well as some messages.

--------------------

Mara Jade sat up abruptly and rubbed her eyes before returning her attention to the computer screen in front of her. However, the offending message was still there, having apparently arrived via Emperor Palpatine's old private intra-palace system. Apparently the New Republic hadn't found it, and she had never gotten around to mentioning it to their security. She opened the message.

Grand Admiral Thrawn to former Emperor's Hand Mara Jade, greetings. I thought that you might wish to know that your former master, the Emperor Palpatine, has apparently been cloned and has put in an appearance on Byss. Whether you wish to go rejoin your old friends or provide this information to your new ones is, of course, entirely your decision. If you would rather learn more about your Master's return without actually meeting him, as might be wise after your recent treasonous behaviour, I can provide proof of his return as well as safe conduct to and aboard the _Chimaera_. Come to Serin in two days. May your thoughts be fruitful,

Grand Admiral Thrawn

Emperor Palpatine. Returned. Or rather, a clone. Old memories welled up. She could have it all back again: the power, the respect... Mara shook her head. That world had died at Endor, and this Palpatine was just a clone. Who knew what he would be like? He might be less sane than Joruus C'baoth. All this also assumed Thrawn was telling the truth. Knowing Thrawn, that was not a safe assumption to make.

A variety of phrases ran through Mara's mind, many of them learned from Karrde's crew, most of them concerning Thrawn's ancestry, anatomy, personal habits, and probable state of mind when writing the letter. None of them were printable, and many were unlikely if not impossible, but it did relieve tension.

Mara felt an odd tingling, and frowned. Her danger sense was at it again. Something was wrong here. This letter was odd... Thrawn wouldn't claim something this far-fetched unless he had some way to back it up. He never bluffed with an empty hand unless he knew his quarry would buy it. He would not expect her to be blindly stupid or trusting, although he might overestimate her fondness for the old regime, so there was no reason for him to expect her to believe it on trust. What if it were real?

Karrde would definitely want to know about this, not to mention the New Republic. All the same, perhaps she wouldn't tell them, at least not until she had poked her nose in a few places first. She got up, and headed for the Imperial Library. B for Byss...

------------

Some three hours later, she had found rather more information than she wanted, most of it mythical, unbelievable, or completely irrelevant. But what was left was enough. It was possible for a cloning facility to be hidden on Byss. There was still no proof.

Maybe Thrawn wasn't trying to recruit her to rejoin the Empire. The exact wording of the letter was ambiguous: "Whether you wish to go rejoin your old friends or provide this information to your new ones is, of course, entirely your decision." If the information in the letter was true, Thrawn might want to hang on to the power he had rather than take orders from another. She had always suspected he was more loyal to the idea of Empire than to Palpatine, even if his actions were loyal enough. For that matter, he might actually be in danger from the Palpatine clone. Palpatine had never tolerated competition or threats to his power well, and Thrawn in his current position was quite the threat, no matter what his intentions were. A crooked smile spread across her face. Thrawn, wanting her help. It would be a cold day on Nkllon before he'd get any help from her. But what if the clone was insane? The smile vanished, and she shivered. C'baoth had been terrifying enough. An insane Palpatine would be worse.

_Enough smirking, what am I going to do about this? I must know the truth. Memories rose up before her eyes, of glittering smiles, of hard eyes and hidden steel, and above them all a pair of yellowing eyes in a wizened face, backed by cunning and power. If Palpatine lives, I do not wish to face him. Not yet. I could take Thrawn up on his offer, or I could try to travel to Byss. I need to talk to Karrde. I wish I could talk to Luke, but I'm not sure I want them knowing about this yet. I am not sure I even want to talk to Karrde. I'll leave a timed message for him... and for Luke. If Thrawn betrays me, I want someone to know what happened._

Mara put the datacards back, and left the library. An hour later, she was in her ship, headed for the stars, and for a ship called _Chimaera_. Behind her, two timed messages lay waiting, in case she did not return.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Pellaeon had taken the news of Palpatine's cloning with some astonishment, but otherwise well, at least up to the point where Palpatine's determination that Thrawn had to die came to light. Thrawn had never seen Pellaeon quite so angry before. "How can he do that?" Pellaeon exploded. "You've been practically the only thing holding the Empire together for the past year, he might not have an Empire to return to if it weren't for you, and now he plans to kill you without even informing you of his return- the son of a- there are no words!" Thrawn was glad that the walls of his Command room were soundproofed, as otherwise many other ears might be learning sensitive information. Fortunately, Loril and Nir already knew, and supported him. Not all Stormtroopers were alike, nor were they all incapable of thought.

"Sith." Thrawn said, "to be absolutely precise." Pellaeon was still beet-red in the face, but he stopped to listen. "Palpatine's loyalty only ever ran one way - from everyone else to himself. This is standard for a Sith Lord. In his eyes, I am a threat to his power, and therefore I must die." Pellaeon's eyes flashed, and Thrawn held up a hand to prevent him speaking. "However, that is in Palpatine's eyes," said Thrawn more quietly. "I have no intention of dying if I can prevent it. Also, I do not think that Palpatine should rule again, either as this clone or in any other form."

Thrawn then spoke about Palpatine's actual behavior while in power, and of how that behavior had helped cause the Rebellion. Finally, he spoke of the Far Outsiders. With that great a challenge in the near future, the galaxy must neither be divided nor ruled by a collection of oddments that had simply slipped into power. Neither Palpatine nor the Rebels could unite the galaxy strongly enough, and the people of the galaxy could not afford to let them fail.

Pellaeon sat silent as Thrawn finished, then spoke. "I had not realized how much is at stake, but how can you be so certain that the Far Outsiders will return, and that their return will be soon?"

"I have studied their art, which indicates among other things that they are extremely stubborn in matters of religious importance. Their religion declares all non-organic technologies anathema, and they attempt to destroy these technologies wherever they find them. My own people met a scout force some twelve years before the founding of the Empire, and barely managed to beat them off with a much larger force. Some of that force then left the galaxy, heading home. By now they know that we are here, and they will also know the nature of our technology. Palpatine also knew independently of their existence through the Force, although they have never appeared in any area of space where humans might have met them. Unfortunately, his estimation of the threat they pose matched mine. I find Palpatine's Force visions to be accurate even though his ideas of what to do about them may leave a lot to be desired."

"I see." said Pellaeon. "I see you've stated the problems with the Emperor rather thoroughly, and I certainly don't want to be ruled by an insane force-wielding clone, especially not after C'Baoth, but what do you intend to do about him?"

"Right now, I intend not to get assassinated. The most obvious course would be to assassinate the Palpatine clone, but that would be almost certain to cause a civil war."

Pellaeon nodded. "There has been too much factional fighting already. I'd hate to see you become just another warlord." He frowned. "Somehow, I just can't picture that happening though- if you did end up fighting a war with Palpatine, I think you'd win."

Thrawn raised an eyebrow at that. "You might be right there, especially if this clone is as insane as I think he is. If he tries to fight both us and the Rebellion using the World Destroyers, it won't work. He hasn't enough of them, and an inadequate terror weapon tends to merely increase the opposition."

"I don't like going against the legitimate ruler though. It feels wrong." Pellaeon added. Through all the wars from the clone wars onward, he'd always followed the legitimate regime. He'd never really thought of doing anything else. But there had to be a limit to loyalty somewhere.

"I would much rather remain loyal, if I thought it had any chance of working." added Thrawn quietly. "I just do not believe there is anything left worth remaining loyal to."

"What do you intend to do, then?" asked Pellaeon.

"I've put out bait for some possible allies to contact us, and I intend to let the Rebellion know about the Palpatine clone's existance. If we can get the clone and the Rebels to fight each other, at least the Imperials will be destroying legitimate targets rather than killing each other while the Rebels mop up the pieces."

Pellaeon relaxed visibly. "Actually, that sounds good." _If it might avoid a civil war, I'd be willing to try just about anything._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Two days later, Mara arrived in orbit over Serin. The _Chimaera_ was not there. There was, however, a single Assault Frigate in orbit, which promptly began hailing her. Mara grimaced, but switched on the reciever. _I shouldn't have expected Thrawn to do anything the obvious way. He never does_.

"This is the frigate _Preemptive Strike_. Unidentified ship, identify yourself."

"I am Mara Jade, Emperor's Hand. The recognition code is Hapspir Barrini Corbolan Triaxis. The Grand Admiral wishes to speak to me."

"Glad to see you, Emperor's Hand. You are expected." Mara's ship shuddered slightly as the tractor beam started to pull her towards the frigate. Mara settled down to wait.

When Mara entered the _Preemptive Strike_, she was led to one of the passenger lounges and told to make herself comfortable, as the ship would not reach the _Chimaera_ for another three hours. It felt odd to be on an Imperial warship again, without anything to do but watch the crew go about their business. There were books to read, but Mara preferred to watch the crew. One could learn a lot that way. It was a little nerve-racking, to tell the truth, for her last visit to an imperial warship had been anything but cordial. She wondered if Thrawn had devised a method for locking Hands out of the computer system yet. It would be difficult, but would probably be possible and Thrawn would definitely try. If she needed to escape she must assume that she would not have that advantage this time.

She found herself watching a squad of Stormtroopers as they walked past, intent on some obscure business. These modern stormtroopers were not like the old Kaminoan clones, but varied in height slightly. She sighed. No matter how much things looked like the old Empire on the surface, nothing was ever really the same under Thrawn. Not even the stormtroopers. They didn't feel the same in the Force either- no clone buzz. There was something a bit odd about one of them... the troopers turned the corner, and vanished from her sight. _They told me to wait here. If I go wandering down corridors following Stormtroopers, somebody is going to get upset. I doubt Thrawn's safe-conduct will hold if I start sticking my nose in places uninvited._

Mara turned her attention to watching a technician dealing with some faulty wiring behind an open wall panel. Whatever it was he was fixing, it seemed to involve an excessive amount of electrical tape. Not a professional-looking repair at all. Mara smiled slightly. Maybe Thrawn was short on trained personnel, not having had enough time to clone as many people as he would have liked before she, Luke and the others had destroyed the Wayland cloning facility. _Good to know._

Shortly thereafter, the _Preemptive Strike_ left hyperspace. Presumably they were now wherever the meeting with the _Chimaera_ would be taking place. Indeed, the captain of the _Preemptive Strike_ arrived within 10 minutes to escort her aboard the _Chimaera_. A quick trip by shuttle and she was aboard the _Chimaera_, a short walk and she was in a neutrally-toned conference room. Within a couple of minutes, the grand admiral arrived, followed closely by Captain Pellaeon and two stormtroopers, one of whom carried a Ysalamir and its associated nutrient apparatus. She felt the familiar blankness descend upon her Force senses. Still, the Force was not her only weapon, and if Thrawn assumed it was, the ysalamir field might help rather than harm her.

Grand Admiral Thrawn smiled politely, and sat down across from her at the table. He waited for Mara to break the silence. Mara reflected that playing patience games with Thrawn was generally unproductive, and spoke. "You mentioned a Palpatine clone, and said you could provide proof. I'd like to see that proof."

"Certainly", said Thrawn, and switched on a viewscreen. "My informant managed to obtain these. The source is very reliable." He slid the viewer controls in Mara's direction. Mara gazed at the screen. On it was Palpatine. Only he looked younger and healthier than she'd seen him look since she was about ten. That could be faked easily enough... She switched to the next image. Palpatine and Sate Pestage. _Wait a minute, Sate Pestage is dead! The Rebels tried to kidnap him out of Isard's hands and he was killed in the struggle. But where Palpatine looks younger, Pestage looks older than he was when he died. This cannot be a straight picture out of the past, though it might be doctored. It doesn't even make sense as an image intended to deceive._ The next image. _Well, people are certainly treating him like the Emperor._ The next. Palpatine throwing lightning in front of a crowd of people. _Where did Thrawn get this image? Palpatine always tried to avoid showing his abilities before the masses because it frightened them. I don't like the expression on his face either... he looks just as insane as C'Baoth at his worst._ Unwillingly, Mara skipped to the last image. Cloning tanks in a small rocky chamber. The clones were different ages, but all of them bore Palpatine's face.

"Very impressive. Are you sure the source is reliable?" Mara asked. _It is possible they could be faked, but if so it is an odd choice of pictures, especially the one that included Pestage._

"Certain enough to stake my life on it." answered Thrawn. "It also explains a variety of anomalies in the drifting of personnel and equipment towards the galactic core over the past few years. There are also these, collected from other sources." He handed Mara a couple of datacards. Mara scanned the data on the first card. There was rather a lot of it, and she knew it would take time for her to figure out whether all the details fit together properly. It seemed coherent at the level of reading she could give it right now, and a few details matched information she had already acquired through working for Karrde.

"All this is very convincing. However, just what do you expect me to do about it? In case you were wondering, I have setup safeguards that will see to it that various interested parties get the information you sent me earlier if I don't come back."

Thrawn shook his head. "I'm not trying to deceive you Mara. I want your help. This clone looks likely to set off a civil war within the Empire, not to mention causing damage to the worlds of the New Republic and killing yet more people unnecessarily."

"You, the Warlord who is well on his way to succeeding in toppling the New Republic, are trying to tell me that you care about how many people get killed? How very extraordinary!" Mara replied sarcastically._ As if I am going to trust your motivations after all that had happened in the past year! Not likely. _

"Unneccessary deaths, Mara. I don't think you've read the section on his World Destroyer project yet. You may well deem me ruthless, but even I draw the line at wholesale destruction of worlds to build ever-expanding fleets of automatic super weapons. That is not a sane action."

"And unleashing another round of clone wars on the galaxy is?" Mara commented acerbically.

"You will notice it did not actually reach that pass. Even if you had not destroyed the Wayland facility, I had no intention of building an army of a single obedience-altered clone. I picked the best of my people for cloning, and then treated the clones as ordinary members of the Imperial military. A cloned army of the early Imperial style is far too easy for an enemy to predict." Thrawn replied.

"In any case, I don't understand what help you want from me." Mara complained. "You never know, I might just waltz off with this information you've given me to go join the Palpatine clone. I bet he'd love to know that you are working against him."

Thrawn raised an eyebrow slightly, and spoke. "You have contacts within Palpatine's inner circle, as well as with the Rebels and Karrde's smugglers. You also have an interest in stopping insane Jedi from getting out of hand- and in not being taken by Palpatine as his Hand again."

"How do you know I don't want to be Palpatine's Hand again? Those were some of the best years of my life!" _Arrogant bastard. How dare he tell me what I do and do not want?_

"This is not the Palpatine you knew- he is insane and will bring nothing but destruction to the galaxy. Read all the information I gave you. The Hand currently with him has already gone unstable." answered Thrawn. "It would be a waste of talent to have that happen to you as well."

Mara remembered the pictures she had seen. Thrawn might be right about the Palpatine clone's sanity, little as she wanted to believe it. _I need more time to study the information, and to think things through._

"Think on it overnight. It is late and morning may shine new light on the subject." Thrawn said into the pause.

"I will think on it." Mara replied. They left the room, and went their separate ways. Mara spent several hours that night reading through the information, sorting it in her mind, and trying to come to some decision. Eventually, she gave up for the time being and went to bed. Perhaps things would seem clearer in the morning.


	15. Chapter 15

It was 3a.m. when Mara woke abruptly. Something was wrong, very wrong in the Force. Her danger sense tingled, but the danger wasn't directed at her. It nagged at her until she understood what was wrong. There was another force wielder on the ship, and their force presence was strong in the Dark Side. Thrawn didn't have any force sensitives, not that she knew of at any rate. The Force kept pulling at her. Somehow, it thought she was supposed to do something about this, if the Force could be said to think. She sat up, turned on the light and got dressed, attaching both her lightsaber and her concealed blaster. If she was going to meet a dark side force wielder, she might need them both.

She walked out the door and down the hall. It was light but she passed few people, and no one stopped her. She turned first left, then right, still following the Force's prompting. She was deep in officer country, and getting deeper. The danger was imminent now. _Crunch_. A physical and force noise came from around the next corner. Mara pulled out her lightsaber and peered round the corner. The nearest door was ajar, and a stormtrooper lay dead across the threshold with a gaping lightsaber wound. Mara ignited her lightsaber, and slipped quietly after the unknown force wielder into the darkened room.

At once, her force sense vanished completely and she was so shocked she nearly tripped. She stood in a small antechamber, with an open door at the end. She slipped through, into a much larger chamber containing an admiral's chair and a variety of screens that she could just make out by the light of her lightsaber. Abruptly, all the lights came on, as did what sounded like every siren in this quarter of the ship. Through the open door at the far end, there was a crash as if someone had just run into a large object. Mara followed the sound into a living room, and beyond it, into a bedroom.

A stormtrooper stood in the middle of the room, holding a crimson lightsaber. In front of the trooper, behind an overturned bedside table, was Grand Admiral Thrawn. _#Kriffing$Y&!_ thought Mara. _How do I get myself into these situations?_ The trooper looked behind him, and whirled to face her, bringing his blade up to attack her. She parried.

"Emperor's Hand Jeng Droga. I'm here on orders from Palpatine. Don't interfere or I'll have to kill you too!" the trooper yelled.

"I don't work for Palpatine anymore!" Mara yelled. It was hard to hear over the sirens.

"Stupid traitor. Palpatine should never have treated you better than the rest of us. Die, then!" He disengaged his blade, and threw a slashing blow from the right side, trying to get around her guard. It didn't work.

The battle resumed, but without the grace normally seen in light saber battles. The Ysalamir presence dulled everything, and Mara felt her head was stuffed with cotton wool. Predicting and blocking Droga's swings was difficult, for he swung unpredictably, and although his shots were wild they had great strength behind them. Thrust, parry, disengage, thrust, parry, disengage, thrust... There were two blue flashes, and Droga abruptly collapsed to the floor unconscious. Behind the collapsed Hand, Thrawn lowered his blaster.

"You planned this, didn't you?" yelled Mara, suddenly furious. "You were manipulating both of us like a pair of puppets in a Karcheni play! Don't you ever stop pulling other people's strings?"

"If I fail to use available means to achieve an end because it involves _manipulating_ people, and more people die, why is this an improvement?"

Mara didn't answer, but swept her glance around the room. The assassination attempt had certainly made a mess of the admiral's bedroom. Overturned and lightsaber-scarred furniture lay scattered about, along with the remains of one of the room's two Ysalamiri, large numbers of burned feathers and a tattered pillowcase. Thrawn followed her glance. "Feather pillows create useful confusion when they hit a lightsaber."

"So I see." answered Mara. "However, what I'd really like to know is why all the furniture has retrofitted soft plastic corners. Not precisely elegant, after all."

Thrawn's eyes narrowed. "I got tired of walking into hard objects in the dark," he answered. Mara didn't feel this was a very satisfactory reply, but a detachment of stormtroopers chose that moment to enter the room.

They were all pointing their blasters at her. "Lower your weapons," Thrawn ordered. "Mara Jade is not a current threat. Remove this man," he gestured to Jeng Droga's unconscious form, "and take him to the brig. Put him under Ysalamiri guard; he's a force wielder." Thrawn fiddled with his communicator, and turned off the Emergency signal, assuring whoever was on the other end that the problem had been dealt with. Quiet fell in the room, much to the relief of Mara's ears.

Four of the stormtroopers left, carrying the unconscious Jeng Droga. "What happened to T 13273?" asked Thrawn.

"He's dead, Sir." answered the squad leader.

Thrawn nodded. "Detail someone to take his body to the morgue. I am sorry to lose him. There is nothing more you can do here. Go back to your duties." The troopers started to leave. "On second thoughts, one of you stay."

Mara also left, heading back to her room and to bed. Not to sleep, in all likelihood, but she did have a lot to think about. _Exactly why did I save Thrawn's life back there? Three days ago I'd have cheered on anyone who tried to kill him. And why did the Force want me to help him?_

----------

Thrawn sat down on his bed, and buried his face in his hands. Rainbow colours were dancing in and out of the edge of vision, and a high-pitched hissing sound assaulted his ears. At least the seizure had put itself off until after Mara and most of the stormtroopers had left. "Admiral, are you injured?" a worried voice asked.

"No, I'm not injured, but I think I'm about to have a seizure." Thrawn managed to get his legs onto the bed as well, but he couldn't quite make out the next thing the man said through the hissing, much less give a coherent reply. The poor trooper was probably scared stupid.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Thrawn woke the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock. He sat up, and stared in shock. M_y room is an utter shambles! What happened? I also have a slight headache, and my wrist hurts. I think I may have sprained it. I don't remember anything to explain the state of my room. I must have had a seizure, but it is obvious that something else happened as well. _Thrawn thinks back, trying to remember.

_Oh yes, Droga tried to kill me last night. What an utter mess he has made of my room! At least he didn't damage Killik Twilight. Ah well, the mess will be fixed by tonight. For now, Mara. At least there is one good thing- after last night I suspect she will not doubt that I am telling the truth any longer. If I also persuade her to help interrogate Droga, that should still any remaining fears. She may also have more success interrogating him than the standard methods, since force wielders are notoriously resistant to them. There is little point interrogating somebody using harsh methods if all it ends up doing is causing death by slow torture. I would rather simply kill the man outright. But if Mara can find information by her own methods without needing to torture anyone, that would benefit all parties._

Thrawn got up, and prepared to face the day. Fortunately, his wrist seemed to be only sore, rather than actually sprained. Thrawn left for the bridge to speak to Pellaeon, and left a message for Mara about Droga.

Pellaeon was leaning over one of the tactical screens discussing something with Tschel when Thrawn arrived.

"I heard about last night." Pellaeon said before Thrawn could speak. "He came in on the _Pre-emptive Strike_ disguised as a stormtrooper."

Thrawn nodded. "We need a better way of identifying stormtroopers. I'm getting tired of various enemies using them as disguises, whether they are Rebels or Hands. Is Droga awake yet?"

Pellaeon twitched slightly. "Yes, I understand he woke an hour or so after the attempt. Perhaps we should go elsewhere to discuss this?"

"Perhaps. But I am certain that knowledge of the basic events will be all over the ship by the time the day is out. Come." They left the bridge.

---------

Mara agreed to assist in interrogating Droga without argument. The interrogation went quickly and relatively painlessly, although both Mara and Droga were wincing in a way that suggested headaches by the end of it. As for what would be done with with Droga, Thrawn would decide later. Perhaps he could find a use for him... although it would have to be something Droga did of his own volition, without realizing that he served Thrawn's interests. _It would probably be safer to execute him... force wielders have a nasty tendency to get loose and cause damage. Still, I don't have to decide that right now._

Later that day, Thrawn spoke with Mara without Pellaeon being present. After the interrogation of Droga, Mara had stopped worrying that Thrawn might be trying to deceive her, and had instead become very willing to help, at least where stopping Palpatine was concerned. In fact, she was now turning that formidable sense of betrayal of hers against her former master. She would make a most valuable ally, although a dangerous one. Whether Thrawn would manage to keep her after the crisis was over would be another matter. Securing her allegiance would probably require telling her about Vong, and possibly the Empire of the Hand as well, and that knowledge should not become public. Not yet.

Shortly after their discussion, Mara left to return to the Republic, to warn them of Palpatine, and to seek allies in the fight against him. Thrawn was satisfied as he watched her ship leave. At the very least, her announcement ought to cause enough confusion in Rebel circles to prevent them launching a new attack against him even if there was little hope of a united attack on the clone. The New Republic's few Jedi, however, might be very willing to fight Palpatine, which would make a most excellent distraction. Palpatine had always been obsessed with destroying the Jedi, and Thrawn doubted this clone would be any different. Meanwhile, he had other allies to gather, and preparations to make.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Luke, I need to talk to you." Mara leaned towards the door, wishing it would open. She could tell Luke was in there, but he hadn't answered her first call. Probably meditating or something similar.

"Just a minute, I'll be there in a moment!" Luke yelled. This was followed by a metallic crash and a clatter of something wooden. Mara frowned. What in the galaxy was Luke doing in there?

About 30 seconds later, he opened the door. "Oh, hi Mara. Sorry about the delay. I was trying to cook some Alderaanian fudge for Leia's official birthday. As you can see... " Luke gestured towards the kitchenette. Mara looked, and goggled. There was a pot upside down on the floor, with a spreading pile of rather blackened apparently-fudge underneath it and a wooden spoon beside it. It smelt burnt.

"If I was Leia, I wouldn't accept that for a birthday present." Mara commented. "I take it you can't cook."

"I usually do better than this," Luke protested. "I got distracted. I hope you don't mind, but I should really get this cleaned up before it sets solid."

"Go right ahead." Mara answered. "You can listen while you clean. I have some news the New Republic would be interested in, and I need some advice. " She paused, not quite certain where to begin. "I'm sure you remember Palpatine."

"I could hardly forget, could I?" asked Luke rhetorically, as he scraped burnt fudge off the floor.

"Well, it seems somebody has gone and cloned him."

"What! I would have thought even Thrawn wouldn't try something that dangerous!" Luke twisted around to look at her, some of the reclaimed fudge spilling back out of the pot as he did so.

"It wasn't Thrawn. He's as upset as you are- one of the Emperor's other Hands just tried to kill him. I ended up saving his life."

"You saved Thrawn's life?" Luke looked confused. "Why?"

"I was wondering if you could explain that. You see, it was the Force that told me to do it. Practically hauled me out of bed by the scruff of the neck. I didn't even know why until I found him cornered in his bedroom by a man in stormtrooper armor wielding a lightsaber. I'd also like to know how the Force alerted me to something happening under a ysalamir field. You're the one always running off on crazy errands at the Force's bidding, so you tell me."

Luke set down the pot. "Are you sure this was the light side of the Force?"

"I think so. Does the dark side normally tell you to rescue people?" asked Mara.

"Not in my experience, no." said Luke thoughtfully. "But rescuing Thrawn when we've been working against him for months with the help of the Force is downright bizarre."

"Yes, it is bizarre. Do you have anything more useful in the way of explanation?" asked Mara.

"Well. If there is a Palpatine clone out there that is trying to have Thrawn killed, Thrawn might actually be an ally." Luke answered, thinking carefully. "The Force would react more to the return of Palpatine's dark side nexus than to a military leader, no matter how brilliant. It has its own priorities, and they don't always match any political side. How in the galaxy did you end up in a situation where you were able to save Thrawn's life? I thought Karrde had assigned you to Coruscant indefinitely." Luke asked.

"It is a bit of a long story, but Thrawn told me the Palpatine clone had returned and offered me safe-conduct aboard the _Chimaera_ so he could prove it to me."

"And you went?" Luke said, looking startled. "I thought last time you were there officially he broke his word rather spectacularly!"

"Well, yes. But I figured that he wouldn't be stupid enough to try to con someone as suspicious as me with something that far-fetched." Mara answered. _And the situation that other time had been rather different..._

"But how did you know Thrawn hadn't predicted that reaction?

"Even Thrawn's not omniscient, Luke," Mara protested, then smirked. "I should know, after having to rescue him from a lunatic force-wielder in his own bedroom. He'd been reduced to throwing pillows at his assailant because he somehow mislaid his blaster!"

Luke just stared back, then grinned. "I have to hear this. Why don't you tell the whole story from the beginning?"

So Mara told the whole tale, with only occasional interruptions.

Luke shook his head. "How strange. No, no, I believe you! But are you sure that this wasn't a set up? It seems odd for him to be in so much danger when he must know he's the galaxy's most tempting target for assassins."

"I helped interrogate Droga afterwards. He's a Hand all right, and he genuinely believes Palpatine has returned. In fact, he swears that it is the original Palpatine, and that the Emperor lived in his head for a while before entering the clone body. Personally, I don't know that I believe any of that, and he isn't sane enough to be a good witness. What I did see of Palpatine through his memories suggested a clone and alteration of Droga's memories by a stronger force wielder, presumably Palpatine. I may not be an expert in all aspects of the Force, but I know what a mind that has been damaged by a Sith Lord looks like. I've seen it often enough." Mara answered grimly.

"This is a crazy situation! Palpatine's clone may save the New Republic from Thrawn, but the Force wants us to help Thrawn against Palpatine. Force only knows what the Council will do with this."

"But what should you tell the Council?" asked Mara. "Palpatine may be less capably dangerous than Thrawn, but he has the potential to be a worse ruler." Mara swallowed. "He is also building a fleet of self-replicating superweapons."

"What!" Luke cried, obviously envisioning a fleet of Death Stars bearing down on him.

"They are called World Destroyers. They are completely autonomous, and they build copies of themselves out of the worlds they destroy. And then they go scrape the surface off the next world on their pre-programmed list of targets. You can imagine which worlds are on his target list."

Luke looked rather sick. "That's awful. Sure there has been the technology to do that sort of thing for years, but no one has actually been crazy enough to bother... Wars are bad enough without doing permanent damage to worlds. Are you sure they are meant to be used on habitable worlds?"

"Unfortunately, yes. It seems Palpatine wants revenge on the rebellion- if he can't rule the galaxy, no one else can either." Mara replied grimly.

"You know, I can see why he wants Thrawn dead, and why Thrawn is trying to stop him. Thrawn doesn't do random destruction for impotent revenge."

"No, he does tightly-focused destruction designed to have the maximum effect on his chosen opponent. The real question is: Is stopping Palpatine worth increasing the chance that Thrawn will win? Being completely blunt here, if Palpatine is taken out without killing Thrawn or weakening him somehow, Thrawn is going to win."

Luke grimaced. "You're probably right about Thrawn winning. We could stand aside and let the Imperials take potshots at each other. They might even kill each other off. But in the end, I think we're going to have to trust in the Force. It clearly wants us to help Thrawn, and to go after Palpatine. Yes, I can feel it too."

"Why do I have this funny feeling that the New Republic leadership isn't going to see the situation that way?" Mara asked rhetorically.

"Probably because you've met Fey'lya."

"That could have something to do with it. Do you think you and that sister of yours could push the council into taking action against Palpatine? They wouldn't need to take action for or against Thrawn, all they'd have to do is ignore him. He doesn't want to fight a war on two fronts either."

"For that, I think we'd better go talk to Leia." Luke looked down at the mess on the floor. "I'll clean this lot up later."


	18. Chapter 18

That night, an emergency council was held for which Mara Jade was the star speaker. It was by far the most anarchic council meeting Mara had ever seen, and the majority of the counselors seemed to be acting on fear, hatred and wild swings of hope rather than on logic. Leia, Mon Mothma and Akbar were among the few trying sensibly to figure out what best to do about the situation for the New Republic, assisted, oddly enough, by Fey'lya. He was at least making logical comments, even if he disagreed with Akbar on almost every point.

"What I think we should do," began Counsillor Fey'lya, "is stay out of it entirely. We cannot beat Thrawn by ourselves, but if he wears himself out fighting Palpatine, while we guard our strength, we should be able to beat him."

"While that would be convenient for us, that assumes that they will not make up their differences, and that they are evenly matched." Akbar rumbled thoughtfully. "If one or the other wins quickly, he will gain the resources of both sides. If it is Thrawn that wins, we are worse off than we are right now. What would really be best is if we delay entering until the power balance is shifting, and then push it back so that they keep fighting each other."

"How would you judge though?" asked Fey'lya. "If you picked your moment just a second too late, you would be fighting the stronger victor, and if you move too early, they might unite against you."

"I hate to say this, Akbar, but Fey'lya's right about this. Thrawn is too smart for us to manipulate him like that." Garm bel Iblis commented.

"Never mind that, what about those World Destroyers?" asked Councillor Doman. "Mara, you said that some have been made. Do you have proof of that?"

"Yes!" said Mara, for what seemed like the umpteenth time that night. "I have evidence from multiple sources, some of which I have already shown this council."

"Anything you didn't learn from Grand Admiral Thrawn, I mean? He could be lying."

"A little bird flew into my ear and told me this, along with the secret of immortality and how to make a democracy decide things quickly." Mara replied in disgust. "Actually, I saw them in the mind of the Hand I was interrogating after he tried to kill Thrawn. They are as real as the chair you are sitting in."

"We cannot make a firm decision based on knowledge gained, by and large, from Grand Admiral Thrawn." Mon Mothma stated firmly. "Someone is going to have to go to Byss and investigate."

"I volunteer." Luke said. "Palpatine ought to have trouble hiding his presence from another force wielder, and I am more likely to be able to get past the Byss security than most people you could send, in both directions."

Han snorted. "You aren't going alone- not this time!" Han added. "I don't want you facing Palpatine all by yourself. Chewbacca and I are coming with you."

This was argued back and forth for a while, but nobody else offered any better suggestions, so Luke, Han, and Chewbacca were duly appointed to go to Byss. They left the meeting to make preparations.

Nothing else very useful was decided that night. The night grew gradually later and the Councillors more tired, so the Council was ajourned until morning. Mara had a suspicion that the council would have even more empty seats tomorrow as various counselors headed for planets less likely to be targeted by the World Destroyers. _Although surely even the most insane Palpatine clone would want to save his own former and future seat of power intact... wouldn't he?_

Luke, Han and Chewbacca left for Byss the next evening in an unmarked freighter. Not the Falcon, but a moderately new freighter belonging to Intelligence. Byss might be notoriously hard to get into, but even Byss needed supplies.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Three days passed, during which Thrawn held meetings. Meetings with the captains, meetings with the moffs, meetings with spies, meetings with people he needed to start rumours... Thrawn was beginning to be thoroughly tired of arguing. He'd always found it more enjoyable to outwit an enemy who really was an enemy, than to best an uncertain ally who might later take offense at the way they'd been manipulated- at which point one had to do it all over again. Still, the meetings had gone well, for the most part. When Palpatine finally announced himself, he would find himself with less support than he expected. Quite why he hadn't announced himself yet, Thrawn wasn't sure. The longer he delayed, the longer Thrawn had to organize and to spread those nasty little whispers that could be more effective than open accusations in bringing down a government. Still, if Palpatine wished to give him time, he would use it to his best advantage.

Thrawn rolled his shoulders and stretched, and before looking across the room at Killik Twilight. He grimaced. The painting really ought to be in an art gallery somewhere it could be viewed by many and protected properly, not sitting in his quarters where only he could see it and where there was always the potential for it to be destroyed. But he had always loved that particular work, and did not wish to let it go, even now that it had come up empty for any detectable rebel codes. The Killiks and the oncoming storm - were they turning away from the darkness, or towards it? The standard interpretation declared that they looked away, as did the Killik's own history - they had left nothing but ruins on Alderaan when they fled into the Unknown regions. But if one looked closely at the way they were standing, it seemed like they were turning towards the darkness. That ambiguity, and the openness of possibility was what had attracted him to the painting originally, over and above the exquisite technique. _We choose our ends, in the end, in incomplete knowledge. But there is still the choice. Is there any way I could have come here with less blood on my hands, yet without the knowledge that I had turned aside from what was needed, allowing more deaths by someone else's hand? And when it is all over, will it even have worked? What if, after all this, the Far Outsiders win anyway?_

- - - - - - -

Three days after the marathon New Republic Council session, Han finally managed to get permission from Byss control to land his freighter and its cargo of droid motivators and cybernetic nanocomponents. He breathed a sigh of relief as the ship began its final descent towards the spaceport. Luke did not. He had been getting more and more ill at ease all day. The Force wasn't giving any clear visions at the moment, but there was a definite sense of danger, and of something shrouded and unclear.

The ship landed. Luke shivered slightly. Han looked over, frowned, and asked "What's the matter? Can you smell Palpatine from here?"

"No," answered Luke. "But the Force is unclear; it is like trying to see through a dark fog. I can't scan the area too obviously, or he'll detect me. And we need something more concrete than 'the Force feels wrong in this area, and it's giving me the creeps.'"

Han snorted. "Yeah, I can just imagine Fey'lya's reaction to that one. Let's go get that cargo unloaded."

After they had delivered and had been paid for their cargo, they collected a few bits and pieces appropriate to their personae and set out, ostensibly looking for a cargo to replace the one they had just offloaded. Chewbacca stayed behind on the ship. Aliens were not welcome on Byss, so it was better if he stayed where he would not offend or be offended. Luke had his lightsaber, but had altered the housing so it looked more like some odd sort of ship maintainance tool... at least until you turned it on.

They wandered about, asking questions and listening to information. This, of course, involved tapcafes and sleazy bars, never Luke's favorite places at the best of times. Byss was supposedly a paradise, so the sleazy bars were quite well hidden, but Han found them anyway. Luke let Han do most of the talking, and opened himself to the Force. There was a lot of darkness to it here, but was the darkness Palpatine? It wasn't immediately recognizable as the evil emperor Luke had fought. It was nebulous, feeling like a cross between a nagging itch and a mild headache, or maybe tinnitus. However, it was getting worse, and he now had a real headache as well as the Force version. He also felt very tired, almost dizzy. He poked Han. "Shouldn't we be getting on home?" he asked Han. "I've got a headache."

"That's funny." said Han. "I've got a headache too. Well, lets get going then." They got up, only to discover that the floor seemed to be tilting. What in the galaxy? Han actually fell over, while Luke managed to keep his balance with an effort. He hadn't had that much to drink. Neither of them had. Could the food have been drugged?

The stormtroopers chose that moment to enter the room. They stunned Luke before he could get his lightsaber out, but not before he felt an icy darkness rushing through the Force like a river, and heard an all too familiar mocking laugh. _I guess Palpatine is here after all_, Luke thought as he passed out.

- - - - - -

Mara sat up in bed, looking about her in shock. The bland walls of her room in the palace met her gaze. All was calm, quiet and dark. Luke was nowhere to be seen, and there was no mocking, hateful laughter._ I must have had a Force vision_, she realized. _And Luke has been captured by the Palpatine clone_.

Elsewhere in the palace, Leia sat up in bed, staring at nothing. "Luke... Han... no!" she whispered. Around her, the darkness felt thicker than ever, as if it was closing in.


	20. Chapter 20

Less than twenty minutes after Luke was taken, Mara arrived at Leia's quarters and demanded that she be allowed to talk to Leia. Winter let her in. Leia was up and dressed, and from the dark circles under her eyes, she already knew.

"Luke's been captured by the Palpatine clone," Mara stated bluntly, unable to think how to soften the blow.

"I know," Leia answered. "Han too. I just informed Akbar's people."

Mara nodded. "Now what?"

"They try to figure out how to get them out. The trouble is, Byss is nearly impossible to get into - even Luke and Han couldn't do it! They say it'll take time-and Luke and Han could both be dead by then."

"Or turned." Mara said slowly, hating herself. "I bet the clone will try."_ Luke in the hands of Palpatine, not for minutes or hours but for weeks or months... and there would be no Vader to rescue him this time. _The thought of Luke's bright cheerfulness and innocence under that dark trial made her feel sick. Luke would never fall to the call of the dark directly, but her old master had been anything but direct. If Luke fell, she doubted Leia would even recognize her brother. _And something good would be gone forever._

"Luke won't turn!" Leia said indignantly.

"I hope not," Mara said, keeping her thoughts to herself. "At least now your kriffing council will be satisfied the clone exists!"

Leia grimaced. "Yes. But this is not how I'd have chosen to have it happen."

"Nor I." They fell silent. Mara kept thinking about Palpatine's methods, and his ways of breaking people.

"How long before a rescue attempt can be mounted?" she asked.

"At least three weeks." Leia said. "They have to assume the way in Luke and Han used is compromised – Han doesn't have Jedi resistance to interrogation."

Mara nodded glumly. _Three weeks. Palpatine could do a lot in three weeks. Luke would probably be either dead or turned by then. There has to be another way. Thrawn! There might not be a Vader available, but Thrawn would not want to see another Vader rise under the Palpatine clone. I wonder if I could persuade him._..

"I have an idea," Mara said, and explained. Leia looked first incredulous and then hopeful.

"Mara, if you could do that, it would be an absolute boon for all of us. Assuming Thrawn isn't playing us all for fools. So far, all his warning has done is get Luke, Han and possibly Chewie captured."

"That's not really fair, Leia. If he hadn't chosen to warn you, you Rebels wouldn't have any idea Palpatine was back. And he is back. I'd know that laughter anywhere. Would you rather be ignorant?"

"No. Never mind. Go and contact Thrawn, and see if you can make him do something."

"I'll go," Mara answered, and left. _Since when did I start calling the New Republic 'you rebels' again?_ she wondered. J_ust where is my loyalty anyway? Here I go running to Thrawn again, leaving another note for Karrde, on a mission to get a Jedi rescued from Palpatine. A Jedi whom I once tried to kill for Palpatine. Do even I know who I am any more?_

_- - - - - -_

Finally, Palpatine had declared himself. Thrawn replayed the holomessage, which had been sent out to all, Imperials, citizens, and by default of the width of broadcasting, Rebels as well. It wasn't very complicated. Basically, Palpatine announced that he had survived death and been reborn, and called on all loyal citizens to rally to him. _It would have been a lot more convincing if you hadn't just tried to kill me_, Thrawn thought. _Never mind, you will not win this time._ He modified the reply he had thought up earlier to suit existing circumstances, and then set the hologram for reply. Broadcast reply, to be received by as many as had heard Palpatine.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn, replying to the clone of former emperor Palpatine. I would have been very interested in serving with you if you had not sent your Hand Jeng Droga to kill me without so much as warning me of your return, and if I did not know that you are building a fleet of robotic ships designed to tear the surfaces off inhabited planets. Under the circumstances I cannot be certain of either your claim or your sanity, and I cannot trust you to hold the best interests of the Empire at heart. Prove these things to my satisfaction, and I will follow you, even unto death. Fail to prove them, and I will fight to defend the people of this Empire from a madman. Over and out."

They stopped recording. "Run the agreed-upon shots of Droga and his confession, as well as the one of the World Destroyer fleet. None of the others." The technician nodded. Thrawn gave Pellaeon a wintery smile. "Now we wait," he said.

Pellaeon nodded. "You were quite confrontational," he noted. "I thought you were going to take a softer approach, while spreading rumors."

"I was originally. But since he so kindly obliged by handing me a failed assassination attempt and then giving time for the rumors to spread, my public allegation will only intensify the rumors. His answer will also give me a chance to judge the state of his sanity. However, I will make no moves against him unless I absolutely have to." Thrawn looked Pellaeon in the eyes. "If this clone is as insane as I think he is, we are not going to be able to avoid war. All I can do is try to keep the casualties to a minimum. Of course, I could always let him have me killed." Thrawn carefully didn't smile at Pellaeon's shocked expression. "But what do you think would happen if I did that?" Thrawn watched as Pellaeon frowned, thinking.

"There might be war anyway. A lot of people would be appalled, and worlds would join the Rebels. Even those of us who didn't turn Rebel would never trust him again. Even if all of us eventually fell in line behind him, he'd probably lose to the Rebels. The original lost to the Rebels, and he had far more resources than this clone will. If he is insane, he'd do an awful lot of damage before he lost." Pellaeon answered.

Thrawn nodded in return. "That is why we must fight him. But come, tell me about the progress of the Tarenne operation."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Palpatine replied to Thrawn's challenge the next day. Apparently, he still thought he could convince Thrawn to join him. Or, more likely, all this shocked and bewildered astonishment was merely intended to fool the various other audiences who would see the transmission.

"My dear Grand Admiral Thrawn, I am shocked that someone tried to kill you, but it most definitely was not me. I have been regaining my strength after Vader so cruelly betrayed me, and am most pleased with your work in beating back the Rebellion. I am appalled that you think I was was at the heart of the assassination plot. While Droga did work for me once, he was always rather unstable and I haven't heard from him since Endor. I imagine the Rebels suborned him into joining them. After your experiences with the Noghri, I'm sure you are familiar with the syndrome. As for the 'fleet of robotic ships designed to tear the surfaces off inhabited planets', surely you aren't getting legitimate mining equipment intended for large asteroids confused with super weapons _again_, are you? I fear your recent injuries may have damaged your mind, which must be quite devastating for such a brilliant man as yourself. Nevertheless, despite your most unjust accusations, I am willing to accept you back into my service. However, I will not brook defiance. Do not think you can play Emperor, Thrawn. Try it without the Force to guide you and you will fall. I do not threaten, I merely foretell.

His Imperial Majesty, Palpatine."

"Somehow, I think not." Thrawn commented.

After a few minutes of waiting, the technicians managed to get a line open into the Imperial Palace on Byss. Palpatine answered.

He smiled at Thrawn. The smile somehow reminded Thrawn of daggers and other lethal weapons. "It is good to see you again, Admiral. I trust you have seen the wisdom of my petition, then?"

"Hardly," Thrawn replied. "I'm afraid Droga's testimony disagrees strongly with yours. He is most firmly of the opinion that you ordered him to assassinate me. No Rebels involved anywhere, as far as I can see."

"I told you, Droga is insane!" said Palpatine angrily.

"Insane or sane, he clearly believed you were the one ordering the attempt, and believed it on the evidence of your Force abilities. There are few Rebels around who could fake such a thing, and all of them believed at the time that you were dead."

"So," Palpatine said slowly, "I see that you have no intention of rejoining me. You have fallen in love with power, Thrawn, and it will destroy you. You are a master militarist yes, but I can manipulate the Force, and bend all the minds of the galaxy to my will. When all your supporters flock to my banner, who will fight for you then? Even you need an army to win your battles."

"You and I both know you lack the power to bend all the minds in the galaxy to your will, and if you try you will destroy yourself." Thrawn replied. "The mask you used to make others serve you willingly is broken, and all the Force power in the universe will not make it whole again. Give it up before this delusion gets you killed – again."

"Delusion! You are the one who is deluded! I will make you crawl, Thrawn, a broken-minded thing whose only wish is to die, but who lives to serve my every whim. Then you will see my power! All of you will see my power, you Forceblind slaves!" Beads of spittle frothed at the corners of Palpatine's mouth, and crackles of electricity puffed his thin hair until it resembled a lightning-riddled halo.

The connection shut off. Thrawn twitched slightly, then smiled. "Not a side of himself the Emperor usually wishes to show in public," he observed. "It tends not to endear him to the citizenry."

"We wait for him to make the first move." Pellaeon said, making an educated guess at Thrawn's strategy.

"Yes." Thrawn said simply. "I have made preparations."

- - - - - - -

Two hours later, an unexpected visitor arrived at the _Chimaera_. She was, however, a welcome visitor. "Mara Jade. How nice to make your acquaintance once more." Thrawn said, gesturing to Mara that she should sit.

"And you. But I didn't come here for small talk. Luke's been captured by the Emperor's clone." Mara announced.

"Ah," said Thrawn. "I take it you wish me to do something about this?"

"I thought you might wish to avoid the Emperor's clone getting his hands on a potential Vader," Mara replied.

Thrawn raised his eyebrows slightly. "A potential Vader. However, Luke has proven admirably resistant to turning in the past. Why should he suddenly change that pattern now?"

Mara's face darkened slightly, but her frustration did not show in her voice. "Because he is held captive long-term. Maybe you don't know the sorts of pressures the Emperor brought to bear on captive Jedi, but I do. Luke will either be dead, mindless, or deep in the dark side following Palpatine if something isn't done about it soon. The Rebels can't get him out. You can."

"His fate is important to you." Thrawn noted.

Mara twitched slightly. "If anyone's going to kill him, I sort of promised him it would be me. I don't want some jumped-up clone of Palpatine doing it."

"Really."

"Ok," Mara flushed. "Maybe I've given up on wanting him dead. I like Luke, and he's a decent man who doesn't deserve to be turned into a psychopathic cyborg."

Thrawn nodded. "I agree with you that I don't want to see another Darth Vader in the hands of any Palpatine clone. What were hoping that I would do about it? Byss is not an easy place to get into, even for me."

"I know you have people working for you on Byss. You must, to have the information that you do," Mara said, leaning forward slightly.

"If I do, why would I risk them to rescue Luke?" Thrawn replied. "Any action other than information-gathering on their part is likely to get them killed, and I cannot afford to be blind and deaf in Palpatine's hideaway."

"If they can get me in, I'll do the rest myself. I'm not asking them to rescue Luke. I don't even have to know who they are, and what I don't know, I can't betray if I am captured."

"Do you honestly think you are capable of rescuing Luke by yourself?" asked Thrawn.

"I could use some help, but I'll try it alone if I have to," Mara replied.

"Interesting. I may be able to find you that help, if you would be willing to bring Luke and his companion here after you rescue them."

"To the Chimaera?" Mara looked startled. "What do you intend to do with him?"

"Offer him a job." Thrawn chuckled inwardly at the expression on Mara's face, but remained outwardly impassive. "A chance to work against the Palpatine clone more effectively than he can from within the New Republic. No turning to the Dark Side is required or desired. And, once the Clone's threat is over, an offer of safe conduct back to New Republic lines if he does not wish to work with me any longer. I also extend that same offer to you. My personal word of honour on it."

"I'm sorry Thrawn, but it is kind of hard for me to trust your word of honour after what you did to me when I was working for Karrde," Mara said.

"If we are going to trade acrimonious comments on each other's trustworthiness, I probably ought to mention that Karrde lied to me about not having seen Luke Skywalker when Skywalker was at that point sitting in his prison, well before I ever lied to you or Karrde. That lie has been paid for by my later one. Shall we call the lies off before they prevent us from doing what we both desire, namely, rescuing Luke from the Palpatine clone? I would rather work with you without having to fear your betrayal, and I will not betray you again, if you do not betray me."

Mara nodded. "It's a deal."

_Good! She will keep her word once given, now. I can stop watching my back for her. _Thrawn relaxed subtly. _Mara will come round to my point of view, given time and the impetus of the mad clone of her former master. She will make a valuable ally._

The argument over, they settled down to plan the details of the rescue.

- - - - - - -

Luke looked up as the door opened. "Come," The unseen figure beyond the door said. Luke came.


	22. Chapter 22

Late in the evening, three days after Mara and her companions had departed for Byss, Thrawn and Pellaeon stood on the bridge and waited. The _Chimaera_ was running at yellow alert, but none of those in the crew pits knew why. The reason was simple: Thrawn expected Palpatine to attack sometime in the next half hour, using Naval ships disguised as pirates. Thrawn had prepared a surprise for them.

Something shimmered in the depths of space, and a large and rather motley force dropped out of hyperspace. _Good, I got their vector correct, and placed the interdiction device well,_ Thrawn thought. _I won't need the reinforcements after all. _He carefully didn't change expression. "Status of the new ships?" he asked.

"They look like pirates, sir," the lieutenant replied. "Seventeen ships, three of them dreadnought class!"

There were some mutters of dismay. A fleet of 17 ships, three of them dreadnoughts, was a very large fleet for a group of pirates. The groups who could actually manage such a feat were few, and none of them were likely to go after the _Chimaera_, even if she was alone.

However, if they wanted to attack the _Chimaera,_ they were on the wrong side of a rather large asteroid field. They stopped, confused. This wasn't where they had intended to come out. They fired weapons at the _Chimaera._ "Damage?" Thrawn requested.

"None sir, their weapons aren't properly in range yet." the Lieutenant replied.

"Good. Fire all weapons with a range of over 150 kilometers," he ordered. "Concentrate on the three largest ships." Lines of green light lanced out, scoring hits on the larger enemy ships. They glowed against shields, then burnt through on the second largest ship in two places. It gave a half-hearted explosion, and lay still. The remaining ships headed full-speed towards the asteroid field, but had then to divert most of their shots to clearing asteroids out of their path. Meanwhile, the Chimaera kept firing. First one, and then another of their ships was severely damaged or destroyed. When all three of the largest ships had been knocked out, the rest turned tail and fled. "Let them go," Thrawn ordered.

"The more of them that get back to report that embarrassing failure, the fewer troops Palpatine will have willing to fight us in the future." he added in an aside to Pellaeon.

Pellaeon nodded, then added, "and the fewer of our own people we kill, the more will be available to fight the rebels, and the less hatred there will be to deal with when the Clone has been dealt with."

"Precisely," Thrawn replied. He then turned and ordered: "Search and rescue craft to go and pick up the survivors. Note: go around the asteroid field. Survivors to be treated as undetermined hostiles with the potential for future alliance. Treat them well, but watch your back, no matter what uniform they wear."

- - - - - - - -

Luke stood quietly as he listened to the Reborn Emperor and his council. The Emperor was in a good humor today about something. Luke wasn't quite sure what, but it made him a lot easier to deal with, so that was fine by him. Assuming none of his friends had gotten hurt by whatever made Palpatine happy – but thinking about it, that wasn't such a safe assumption. For some reason it pleased the Emperor to have him standing here, and since standing listening to a group of Moffs argue didn't involve going over to the dark side, Luke was happy enough to oblige him._ The more I can do that he likes, that isn't directly wrong, the longer Han and I will survive. Live long enough, and I'll find a way out of here, I know I will._

At this point a rather youthful officer walked into the council chamber, bowed to the Emperor and approached the long oval table. Luke could feel the fear boiling off him as he approached._ Bad news. And he doesn't want to be the one to tell the Emperor, but all his superior officers have bowed out of the honour. Poor guy._

"Your Majesty, I have news about Grand Admiral Thrawn," he announced.

"Yes?" said the Emperor.

"Your ambush failed. Vice-Admiral Kenorr is dead, and the fleet is cut to ribbons. Captain Albil says to tell you Thrawn did it with just one ship._"_

Deathly silence prevailed at the table, until Palpatine said quietly "would you repeat that please?"

The officer repeated his news, wondering whether a reprieve had been granted, or whether he was a dead man.

The Emperor stood, knocking over his chair. "Thrawn" he hissed, his fists clenched at his sides "Mitth'raw'nuruodo you ungrateful son of an alien with the manners of a monkey lizard, the tastes of Jawa, the grace of a Hutt, and the culture of a depraved wookie, I am going to kill you, but first..." he trailed off into an anatomically unlikely description of torture that Luke tried not to listen too closely to. He found himself distracted by watching the Emperor's appearance. The Emperor's eyes were glowing a sickly yellow, and his hair was standing on end, glittering with tiny lightning flashes. In the Force, he glowed red mantled in swirling black. Luke shuddered and looked at the floor, feeling overwhelmed and dizzy with the raw Dark Side Force energy in the room.

"CRACK!" Luke looked up in time to see the young officer fall to the ground dead, stricken by an oversized bolt of Force lightning. The Emperor threw back his head and laughed. Lightning flickered from his hands to dance at random intervals, from the floor to the ceiling, and around the carved statue of a snarling beast above the door. Around the table, the Council leaned away from the Emperor wide-eyed, but too frozen to move. Luke could not feel them past the storm in the Force, but they looked terrified.

A small balding man got up from the table and went over to the Emperor, and whispered something in his ear. The Emperor did not seem to hear him. The man, Sate Pestage, Luke suddenly remembered, reached out as if to shake the Emperor by the shoulder. The Emperor turned round, one hand ready with a blaze of lightning. The man yelled something urgently that Luke couldn't hear over the roaring in the Force, at which the Emperor dropped his arm, and the lightning went out.

"From this moment I declare that the Grand Admiral Thrawn has betrayed Our trust in him," the Emperor announced. "He is hereby stripped of all rank, and declared outlaw. A price of 20 million Imperial credits is hereby placed on his head: dead or alive, I care not which."

"Heard and witnessed!" chorused the council. The Emperor turned, and stormed out of the chamber. The red guards followed, in a swirl of crimson. "Apprentice!" he cried as he was halfway down the hall.

"Coming, Master!" Luke replied, and hurried after him. Behind him, Luke could hear voices murmuring, but what they said he could not tell.

_A/N: Thanks to all my readers for your patience. The inordinate delay was due to tendonitis caused by work._


	23. Chapter 23

Alone in his chamber that was and was not a cell, Luke attempted to meditate on the Force. It didn't do him much good – the whole area was so steeped in the dark side any attempt to find use the light side seemed to find only muddy echoes of what should be there, and lead to dull headaches instead of enlightenment. As for the dark side meditations that the Emperor insisted he do – he did as little as he could without attracting the Emperor's ire. He didn't think he'd turned to the Dark Side – so far at any rate. What would happen if he was shut up in this place for another month didn't bear thinking about. Fear and anger seemed to ooze from the walls, contaminating everything he touched and the air he breathed, until he found himself starting at shadows and angry at the very dust.

He thought back to a conversation he had heard the day after the council meeting at which Palpatine had declared Thrawn outlaw. Two of the moffs apparently hadn't realized how acute a Jedi's hearing was. They really hadn't been happy with the Emperor's behaviour. In fact, there had been some talk of "seeking other alternatives" that made Luke wonder if the ranks of Palpatine's followers might be thinning. He hoped so. The fact that the man had any adherants at all when he behaved like a two year old having a Force-assisted temper tantrum was beyond him. Honestly... but there were footsteps in the hall. Stormtroopers, come to take him to dance attendance on the Emperor again. Quick, think of something innocuous – Palpatine's awareness might be following them like it had yesterday. Hmmm... ribene stew.

Luke followed the stormtroopers into the Council chamber. Another meeting. At least all the Emperor wanted of him during these meetings was to stand quietly and listen. Sometimes during the boring parts he fantasized taking his lightsaber and cutting the entire council into small pieces. _Of course, since hatred is a path to the dark side I really shouldn't... but I could fix so many of the galaxies problems if I did. I'd never manage it though, not with the Emperor there. And without him there isn't much point. _The Emperor walked in, and Luke bowed low as he passed. The Emperor smiled to see him do so, and sat down.

_That's odd, only half of the people are there. All of them know better than to keep the Emperor waiting. _The Emperor looked around the table, and frowned. "Where are Moffs Karkolf, Chulau and Sander? And General Rokarn?" he asked, looking somewhat puzzled. There was a confused murmur around the table as various people denied knowing the whereabouts of the missing members.

"Moff Kess sends his regrets – he is sick and is undergoing treatment in a bacta tank," someone Luke didn't recognise said.

"Yes, yes, I knew about him already. Does anyone know why the others aren't here?" the Emperor asked.

Dead silence answered him. The Emperor narrowed his eyes. "So, I have traitors in my ranks, I see. How disappointing. I shall deal with them – later."

Luke heaved a silent sigh of relief. Perhaps today the Emperor wouldn't lose his temper and start throwing lightning again.

"Now, does anyone has any suggestions on how to destroy Thrawn?" The Emperor demanded.

"Get another Noghri to stab him in the back?" someone suggested tentatively.

"Unfortunately, the Noghri no longer answer to anyone in the Empire," the Emperor replied. "Assassination is a wonderful solution to the Thrawn problem, and it has already been attempted. However, the Chimaera has completely stopped taking anyone new onto the ship, making it very hard for an agent to infiltrate themselves. We need another idea."

"You've got a Jedi standing over there who is plenty of reason to dislike Thrawn. Why not send him?"

"Thrawn surrounds himself with ysalamiri," the Emperor said. "I have other, better uses for Skywalker."

"You could try giving him a piece of artwork with a bomb or poison in it." Moff Terril said thoughtfully. "Obviously you'd have to pick an indirect method of getting it to him. It would also have to be a piece that he wants badly."

"Preferably one that would be damaged by too close a scan." the man who had spoken tentatively earlier said.

"The trouble is, Thrawn's too clever by half," said Admiral Voss Aril. "I've worked with him before, and I doubt he'd go for a poisoned piece of artwork, and if he did, he'd find a way to decontaminate it first. You'd end up merely giving your enemy a pretty present."

"You could stick some sort of disease causing agent on it – that would be awfully hard to detect."

"Until someone got sick," said Aril, "which they would long before it got into his hands – unless you could key it to him personally, or to his species whatever that is."

"That could be done." The Emperor answered. "I like it. While it might or might not work, this is an avenue worth persuing. Apart from assassinating the man, how else can we get rid of Thrawn?"

"What about character assassination? There must be some dirt somewhere we can dig up on him. Wasn't he kicked out of whatever backwater planet he came from? Do we know why?"

"Oh, we know why," the Emperor said, and smiled. "he was too aggressive for his own people to stomache, and he did a rather dirty job for me. It involved getting rid of 18 Jedi for me, along with 50,000 civilians who were merely in the way. If spun right, it could make him unpopular among both Rebels and Imperials. Excellent!"

"While this is going on, you might wish to appear to negotiate," said Pestage.

"Why?" said Palpatine, frowning. "I do not negotiate with traitorous aliens."

"I was not suggesting that you negotiate in good faith. But if you appear to negotiate, that would allow time for the smear campaign and the assassination attempts to operate and possibly lull his suspicions."

The meeting ground on for another hour, but the final decision was to accept Pestage's suggestion.


	24. Chapter 24: Plots and Counterplots

Chapter 24

Luke spent much of that night thinking about one particular revelation from the meeting. Thrawn had destroyed Outbound Flight: 18 Jedi and 50,000 civilians. While it had always been fairly obvious to Luke that Thrawn had no love for Jedi, killing 50,000 people who were merely in the way seemed like overkill.

Angrily, he should slammed his hand into the wall, feeling a sudden dark red strength flow through him. The Dark Side. Luke threw the covers aside and paced back and forth in the dark, his bare feet cold against the stone floor. He had to find a way to get out of here before he went completely mad. Was this what happened to his father? There must be another way...

But he had found no way by next morning when he was summoned to speak with the Emperor alone.

Luke bowed to the Emperor as he entered the throne room. It was bright with sunlight, and the Emperor sat facing away from him, a black siluette against the light. "Why good morning my apprentice," the Emperor said, smiling as he swiveled around to face Luke. "I take it you did not sleep well last night?"

"I did not, my Master." Luke paused before adding "that Outbound Flight project you mentioned yesterday - what was that?"

The darkness of the Emperor's sense in the Force deepened, but the Emperor's smile broadened. Luke had a sudden suspicion that he should not have asked that. "Outbound Flight was a Jedi project to map the galaxy next to ours, as well as to search for a Jedi who had gone missing in the unknown regions in that direction. It was also a colonization project, and 50,000 ordinary civilians went with them. Thrawn destroyed it."

"Why?" asked Luke, fighting back the anger all over again. "I can see why you would want it destroyed, but what did he have to gain? Or was he just trying to gain a place for himself in your empire?"

"Always a power hungry one was Thrawn. A few civilian lives were small price to pay for entry into the greatest empire that has ever been. Now that I've returned, you see, he will not follow me. Thinks his pathetic little kingdom can stand up to my power. The fool! Either of us have more real power that he does for all his ability to move ships in pretty patterns." He laughed, and Luke laughed half-heartedly along with him. "Oh no, my young apprentice, Thrawn will soon be irrelevant."

"But I did not call you here for this - you are here to learn how to move objects. No, not with the Light Side, with the Dark Side. You can't move a multi-ton ship in the Light Side without completely exhausting yourself. With the Dark Side, however... The Jedi were wasting your potential. You'll see." He got up and headed out the door, Luke following.

They went outside, where they spent the rest of the morning lifting heavy blocks of masonry, speeders and large trees with the Force. The technique was easy to grasp, absurdly so and between his loathing of Palpatine, his fear for Han and Chewbacca, and what Palpatine had revealed about Outbound Flight the anger and hate necessary came all too easily.

When he got back to his cell later that day and was finally alone he stood still for a moment before whirling and kicking the wall. It hurt, and he started to laugh, then sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands. No, anger didn't really solve anything... but was he really so different from Vader now? And how long would what differences were left last?

_____________

Mara Jade looked around her at the group she and Grand Admiral Thrawn had assembled to rescue Luke, and felt herself satisfied. There were five others seated around the rectangular table, two stormtroopers and three drab plainclothes men from Imperial Intelligence's dirty tricks division. They listened attentively as she started speaking.

"Our mission is to rescue Luke Skywalker from the imperial clone - the so called Emperor Reborn." She clicked on the holo-projector to show their route. "We will be traveling to Byss, where Skywalker is currently being kept, and remove him from captivity. Han Solo and Chewbacca are also believed to be being held in the same area, and if we can rescue them as well we will, as it is possible that Skywalker may try to refuse to come with us otherwise. However, Skywalker is our objective. So long as we retrieve him our mission has been accomplished."

"We will be joining the Imperial Clone's troops on board the medical frigate Surgical Procedure," Mara paused for a moment, wondering what lame-brained idiot had named the ship, before continuing "there's been a great deal of chaos lately with troops being called in from all over so it is unlikely that we will be noticed before we get to Byss. All of you will be going as stormtroopers. I will be a priestess in the church of the dark side returning to Byss on hearing of the Emperor's return, and you are my escort."

"We will disembark in the usual manner when we reach the planet Byss. You will be provided with the correct IDs and all relevant information. Here", She pulled the set of data cards out of her pockets and passed them out. These are the details for each of your personas." She waited long enough to make sure that everybody had their correct data card, and then continued.

"On reaching Byss, we will need to contact Skylon. You will be doing this, Sarvil, while you, Tannu, search the records to find where Solo and the wookie Chewbacca are being kept. Four hours after you make contact, there will be a diversion that we will know when we see it." She pursed her lips, wishing that Thrawn had seen fit to enlighten her as to exactly what he had planned. "We will then grab Skywalker from his cell, and if possible to retrieve Solo and the Wookie. Then we run."

Mara frowned. She had always had a bad feeling about this part of the plan. While Thrawn had assured her that there would be enough trouble to allow them to leave and she did believe him, she wondered precisely what he had planned. Thrawn rarely did anything with only one purpose in mind. What if her mission was the diversion?

___________

Thrawn was re-examining Palpatine's favorite artwork again and comparing it to Luke's when the call came. Thrawn switched off the holos and answered the comm. "Admiral, there is a message just in from the Imperial Clone-Emperor Palpatine," the Comm officer told him.

"Send it on," Thrawn said and let the message play. The Emperor wanted to meet and discuss the possibility of reforming the Empire and ending the schism. Thrawn read the message through a second time, weighing the nuances of each word. On the surface, it seemed well enough. The tone was resigned, and certainly the reverses of recent weeks would be enough to make many people reconsider matters. However, given that this was Palpatine and Mara's rescue mission would not have reached Luke yet, it was most unlikely that this was what it seemed.

Most likely, it was a play for time. Thrawn weighed the consequences of ignoring it. While the Imperials fought and maneuvered against each other, the offensive against the new Republic had stalled. Getting that going again was going to take effort and lives, and the New Republic was using the time to regroup. Of course, as the offensive was already stalled, losing its more time would do little more damage so long as he could keep the them arguing among themselves. Fortunately, Fey'lya and Akbar were doing that quite capably without much help from him.

Assuming he accepted the invitation and parleyed, what would happen? If he could get the clone away from Byss it would be much easier to destroy the other cloning chambers and their occupants, as well as making the success of Mara's team more likely. When the clone received word of this, he would stop negotiations and most likely physically attack Thrawn. He might well also call in any ships he had waiting. There could be a space battle. Given a few judicious alterations on his part, that would be a good opportunity to end this war before it could get completely out of hand. How open was the transmission?

He keyed on the channel to calm again "Lieutenant, how open was the transmission and how many relays were involved?"

"In the clear, and 7 relays involved, sir." _In other words, very,_ Thrawn thought. "Thank you lieutenant, that will be all for now." He ended the transmission.

Thrawn keyed open the art holos and started perusing Palpatine's. It wasn't as if he needed to look at them again - with his eidetic memory he could call them up without outside help at all, but it was always possible that he might have missed something. This time he would have Ysalamiri on the bridge... there would no more Outbound Mistakes. Not this time.

A/N: To all readers: Thank you for your patience in waiting, and your persistance in poking me to continue this.


	25. Chapter 25: Finding Luke

Chapter 25

Thrawn and Pellaeon talked over the contingency plans for the possibility of Palpatine attacking during the negotiations. Pellaeon did not like being left behind, but found it difficult to put his objections into words that Thrawn would listen to. He hated to have to use this argument, but...

"Yes, I know you're going to be taking multiple Ysalamiri, and you believe the storm troopers will be loyal to you, but can you guard against a siezure? There ought to be somebody other than you there with the ability to take intelligent action and reject any suggestion from the Emperor that he take you back with him for medical treatment - put them in storm trooper armour if you must, but take them."

To Pellaeon's slight surprise, Thrawn smiled as he responded. "One of the 'storm troopers' on the mission will be Lieutenant Mithel. He has shown an impressive knack for dealing with the unexpected. I need you on the Chimaera because I will need you to take command until I am able to get back."

Pellaeon opened his mouth to protest but Thrawn added "...if this meeting occurs at all. I suspect that Palpatine may not be willing to conduct any meeting with Ysalamiri present and I will not conduct one without them. An actual physical meeting is plan C. Plan A is that we end up meeting by holograph from our separate ships, plan B is that Palpatine refuses any meeting and we either sit there and stare at each other from our separate ships or he leaves in a huff."

Pellaeon nodded. He still didn't like it much, but it was as good as possible given that they couldn't refuse the negotiations without losing face.

"Actually, the main question is not what happens with the meeting, but what happens when Palpatine finds out about either one of the missions to Byss. News will probably reach him during the conference if it is extended. He is very likely to attack or order others to attack, and it is this we need to prepare for. That is why you must remain on the Chimaera." A smile played around Thrawn's mouth. "If I am not in a position to command, I need somebody capable there until I can get back. You'd be wasted in Lieutenant Mithel's position."

_________

After a journey remarkable only for Tannu's skill with cards, Mara and her team arrived on Byss. The echoing hanger where they disembarked was full of people. Excited people, chattering people and quiet people walking determinedly about their business. Mara's little group fit right into the latter category. Between the stormtroopers and Mara's prophet of the dark side outfit people gave them a wide berth and they slipped easily through the crowd. Sarvil quietly detached himself to go seeking Skylon, while Tannu headed for the computers of the Intelligence Section.

As they left the hanger the crowd bunch up and Mara caught a very interesting snatch of conversation. "I'm not at all sure about this negotiation thing. The Grand Admiral is treacherous, like all aliens, and I fear for the Emperor's safety. He should've taken more backup."

Negotiation? What negotiation? What was Thrawn doing behind her back now? Mara slowed, pretending to study the announcements on the flashing info board high on the wall while she listened to the pair of techs. Her escort slowed with her.

"With our Emperor's Force abilities, he should be safe enough. Besides, what use is a battle fleet when Thrawn is on the other side? It's the Force that will win. I bet twenty credits on it the other day."

"You obviously aren't very sure then," the shorter fellow said, snorting back laughter.

"I don't get paid till next week," the taller one said. They began to talk of other things and drifted away in the crowd.

Mara smiled crookedly in the shadow of her hood. Whether the negotiations were real or not, they would keep Palpatine away until she'd finished here. She wondered how Thrawn had managed it. Being on the same side as him definitely had its advantages.

Two hours later, Sarvil reported back that he had successfully located Skylon and were they ready to start the countdown to the distraction? "No!" Mara said into the tiny comm hidden in her hood. "We haven't heard back from Tannu yet. Can you hang on?"

"Yes. Contact me when you're ready, but don't make it too long." He clicked out. Mara grimaced. Everything now depended on Tannu. Unexpectedly, Sarvil commed back and she flicked it on again. "Skylon has the information here - Skywalker is in the Imperial compound of the Citadel, room 121B, two corridors from the main conference room. Han and the Wookie are both in detention cell 3941F."

"Excellent!" Mara said. "Start the countdown."

Next, she contacted Tannu, giving the come-back signal. They met under the main archway in one of the side hangers. From there they walked to one of the gardens where Mara pretended to meditate and plotted how they were going to get into the detention area. She had assumed they would be somewhere closer to Luke. As things were, Luke would be simple enough to get out - given Mara's prophet rank, and the fake ID she had for him. Han and the Wookie were going to be another matter entirely. Getting them out was all too likely to be blasters and lightsabers all the way.

Mara was sorely tempted to just leave them there - it wasn't as if she owed them anything, but the idea of getting Luke to move without even attempting to get his friends out so they weren't killed summarily when he escaped was not something she cared to consider either.

If they didn't have a plan, Luke would make one and run with it, probably with disastrous results. They hadn't dared take Ysalamiri onto Byss with the Emperor supposed to still be there, so they weren't going to be able to make Luke do anything. They ought to be able to swing the rescue. Maybe. And maybe just wasn't good enough.

Perhaps a token rescue attempt that would prove impossible. Do the minimum, claim it was impossible and haul Luke away. And if the idiot protested too much, well, that's what blaster stun settings were for. She got up, and they made their way back inside and inside the Citadel itself.

By the time the wait was up, they were well inside the Imperial Citadel. Mara waited, glowering impressively at a painting with her escort ostensibly waiting for her and trying to look like they were trying not to look bored. The minute came and... nothing happened.

Mara gritted her teeth and did not look at her timepiece. Thrawn had said that she would recognize it when it came.

There was an immense bang, and they were all knocked off their feet as the entire Citadel shook beneath them. The painting fell to the floor, landing three inches from Mara's head. She rolled and jumped back to her feet, checking once to make sure her group was intact before marching purposefully down the corridor with her escort at her heels. She let assorted panicking imperial bean counters, officers and officials dodge her, as she headed straight for Luke.

_A/N: Yes, I'm back to working on this story and the next chapter is in the works. However, I found I'd written a bit that belonged before Mara's arrival at Byss so I had to retrofit it in here._


	26. Chapter 26: A Rescue Underway

_A/N: I have added to Chapter 25 as of Feb. 2010, in case any of you want to read the added bit before starting this chapter._

Chapter 26: A Rescue Underway

As Mara reached room 121B, the door swung inwards on its own. Luke appeared, silhouetted against the light inside the room. He motioned them inside. Mara couldn't help noticing the dark circles under his eyes and that he had lost weight in the couple of short weeks since she'd seen him last.

"Mara!" he said. "What's going on? And why are you dressed like that?" His eyes narrowed. "Have you rejoined Palpatine, then?"

Mara gestured to Tannu, who twisted a knob on a tiny metal instrument in his hand. There was a tiny tinkle of breaking glass. "Now we're not bugged. Unless you want to join Palpatine, you'd better come with us."

"I can't - they have Han and Chewbacca hostage and will kill them if I step even slightly out of line. They must be under Ysalamiri or something because I can't sense them to get them out. Palpatine let me see them only yesterday. You shouldn't have come."

"We know where they are," Mara told him. "Now if you'll just put this on," she held up a black cloak similar to her own "you'll become just another Prophet of the Dark Side as far as most people are concerned. While we know where Han and Chewbacca are, I'm not sure we can get them out. They are in detention cell 3941F, which is dug into the bedrock below the citadel."

"I can get them out," Luke answered, "now I know where they are." He grabbed his lightsaber from the black table beside the bed, and threw the cloak over himself, pulling the hood up to hide his face. "Let's go."

There were still alarms blaring for much of their walk and turbolift ride to the main dungeons. It was a long way, down in the rock far below the main bulb of Palpatine's oddly shaped palace, and part-way down they realized they had a problem. The explosion had caused damage to the turbolift. They were cut off in the main bulb.

Mara would have called a halt to the extended rescue operation right there, but Luke ran around the rubble and the panicking technicians and into the next room where he cut a lightsaber hole in the floor. As Mara watched, he jumped through it, and called to the others: "Come on, we're wasting time!" Mara followed, gritting her teeth.

It was going to be hard to get back to the ship without a working turbolift. Getting down by jumping through lightsaber holes was a lot easier than jumping back up through them - especially with so many non-force-sensitives on the team. She nearly had to leave Tannu behind when he panicked at being asked to jump. Luke pulled him through the hole using the Force and the man nearly fainted. Mara sneered inwardly - what was Tannu doing being a field operative when he was afraid of heights? They went two more more stories down in this fashion before reaching the section where the turbolift worked again.

The turbolift ground its way down, making entertaining squeaks, sparks and squeals from time to time but never actually stopping. After what seemed an age but was only 20 minutes, they came out at the bottom outside the main entrance to the dungeons.

They entered through the main gate, showing ID to each of the four guards on duty before being allowed to enter. After a tense five minutes of examination and questions, they received permission to take prisoners 127BA2 and 127BA3 topside for further questioning. One of the guards motioned to them to follow him and they set off down the gray corridor.

Mara glanced carefully at Luke, whose emotions had been simmering dangerously all through the ID check and questioning. His hood was up, hiding his face, but she could still feel him. He had changed, she could tell, but she didn't have time to figure out exactly what the changes were.

The guard let them along one corridor and down a side corridor to Han and Chewbacca. The guard snapped stun cuffs around both prisoners wrists, and ordered them to get to their feet.

Han looked disgruntled, but obeyed the order. "Where we going now?" he asked. Chewbacca yowled something incomprehensible but probably uncomplimentary and got to his feet, ducking his head so it did not hit the low ceiling.

"You'll find out when you get there," said the guard. He turned to Mara. "They're all yours now, Prophetess Talisa," the guard said to Mara. "They are expected back here by 4:00 PM this evening."

Mara nodded decisively. "4:00 PM." And now she really did have to figure out just how they were going to get back up to the main bulb and their ship past that broken turbolift_. Kriff it, why couldn't Thrawn have picked a better diversion? _ Tannu and the others were never going to be able to jump up the holes, and she doubted Luke could throw all the non-force-sensitives up that far. She certainly couldn't.

______________

The Chimaera came out of hyperspace next door to the Aeleni System, around an unnamed brown dwarf. The ship slid into the thick disk of gas, dust and small rubble surrounding the star, quickly becoming invisible from any distance. Over the course of the next 15 minutes, more and more ships arrived, all nearly invisible to each other save by subspace communications.

On the bridge of the Chimaera, Vice-Admiral Pellaeon walked over to Grand Admiral Thrawn where he stood gazing out the transparisteel viewport into the dusty night. "The last ships have arrived, Admiral," Pellaeon said.

"Are all ships hidden from sensors more than 1000 km distant?"

"Yes, sir."

Thrawn nodded his head slightly. "Excellent."

Tomorrow the meetings would begin, and if Thrawn was right, the decisive battle for control of the Empire.

____________

Meanwhile, in the council chambers of the new Republic, Councilor Leia Organa-Solo was reaching the end of her patience. Leia swiped her hand across the forehead, willing her headache to go away. To her surprise, it actually eased somewhat. She must ask Luke about that someday... if she ever saw him again. She turned back to watch the shouting on the floor of the council chamber and quelled the urge to lay hands on her lightsaber and and give them something to yell about. Borsk Fey'lya in particular would look better with a good shave to quell his constant ironic fur rippling.

Leaving her lightsaber where it was, Leia stood up. "If you are quite finished arguing that my suggestion that we put large amounts of energy into rescuing Luke, Han and Chewbacca is based solely on my relationship with them, I should point out that they are the currently the only people on our side to know what is going on on Byss. It has been two weeks now since they've disappeared, and all we know of Byss is what the Imperial Clone wants known, plus the Thrawn documents. Unless you intend to invite the Imperial Clone - or Thrawn perhaps - here to discuss just what is going on, I suggest that we get moving on rescuing those of our people who know what's going on!"

Her outburst merely added to the general noise, and nothing was done that day either. Not for the first time, Leia seriously considered taking the Falcon and going to do something about the situation herself, but there were the twins... not for the first time, Leia wished she had not chosen to have children in the middle of a civil war.


	27. Chapter 27: The UnderHanded Emperor

**Chapter 27 The UnderHanded Emperor  
**

As it happened, Mara didn't need to worry about the broken part of the turbolift. They never got that far.

Less than two minutes into their upward journey, the turbolift ground to a halt and the doors opened. A tall, heavily built young man with black hair entered, followed by two stormtroopers. Mara stiffened involuntarily, as did Luke. The stranger smelt heavily of the dark side, and he wore a plain black jumpsuit with no prophet cloak. He pressed the down button, and the turbolift began to move back down the shaft. The stranger turned to look at them and frowned at the sight of Chewbacca and Han. "These prisoners were not to be moved, by order of the Emperor. Who are you?" he demanded. "Lower your hoods."

"I am prophetess Talisa," said Mara, not lowering her hood. "We act on the Emperor's orders. By what right do you question us?"

"Hapspir Barrini Corbolan Triaxis."

Mara stiffened. _How dare he! That's _**my**_ recognition code._

"Take down your hoods", the stranger said, menace in his voice and his hand on his lightsaber.

Beside her, Luke's hand inched towards his lightsaber. She sent an unspoken warning in his direction. "I know that code," Mara said slowly. "I know it well." She lowered her hood. "Good to meet you, Emperor's Hand."

The Emperor's other Hand showed no recognition, but smiled with pride. _So he probably thinks he's the only Emperor's Hand. I wonder how many of us Palpatine had fooled that way? He must've been laughing his head off at all of us behind our backs. Wretched monster. If I ever meet that blasted clone, he'll regret it._

He returned to the subject. "The prisoners," he said. "They go back down."

"I have instructions from the Emperor - " Mara began.

"I have instructions from the Emperor to see to it that these two are not moved under any circumstances. I rank you, and the Emperor left Byss this morning." He turned to look at Luke. "You," he said, "lower your hood!" His lightsaber was in his hand.

Luke pulled back his hood with one hand while his lightsaber jumped into his other hand and ignited. "Surprise!" he said. Mara dropped her holdout blaster into her hand and fired at the Hand, who promptly blocked the shot with his lightsaber and sent it bouncing back at her. She ducked out of the way, and bounced off Chewbacca. _There isn't enough space for a firefight in here_, she thought anxiously.

Lack of space or not, Luke and the other Hand were trading lightsaber blows while the stormtroopers on both sides behind them aimed their blasters, trying to find a clear shot at the other side.

"Mara!" Han yelled from where he knelt in the corner. "Unbind us so we can help! We're sitting ducks as we are." Sarvil, who was next to him, reached over to Han and undid his binders and then Chewbacca's.

Luke pushed the Hand's blow off-balance. The Hand's lightsaber blade sheared into the wall, sending sparks into the air. The turbolift shook, the lights went out, and the lift began to fall faster. All of them except Luke fell variously against each other and the walls of the lift, leaving Luke stand it alone in the center holding his hands out and down, his lightsaber still ignited and held in one hand. He was pulling so hard on the Force that he glowed faintly with power.

The others froze, even the non-force-sensitives realizing that something was going on. For nearly a minute they watched. If the turbolift hit bottom at full speed, it wouldn't matter which side they were on - they'd all be dead alike. The turbolift began to slow, and came to rest with a gentle thud on something solid. The doors opened.

________

It was that same evening that the sad tale of the fate of Outbound Flight came to the New Republic High Council's attention. It came via the bothan spies, of course, as so many other pieces of intelligence had in the past.

Leia listened in growing horror. Thrawn had killed 50,000 civilians just to get at a few Jedi? Before he had even been made formally part of the Empire? The man's ruthlessness clearly knew no bounds. Leia shivered. To think how close she had come to being captured by him not once but several times - and worse, her twins. C'baoth might have been mad, but Thrawn was something worse.

After that rather riveting piece of information, they want went on to more normal discussion of what to do about the Empire's civil war, if anything, although everyone seemed subdued. Even the obligatory Fey'lya - Akbar argument was conducted at less than the usual volume, and Garm Bel Iblis had not been present. Hadn't been present for the past week for that matter. Where was the man?

Afterwards she found herself talking to Admiral Akbar, who seemed perturbed by the whole thing. "It does not match what we have seen of Thrawn's style so far," he rumbled. "His recent campaign caused strikingly fewer civilian deaths than any comparable offensive in the history of the Empire. More than that, why did he hate Jedi so much when it was the first time he'd ever met them?"

Leia shook her head, having no answer to that. "I don't know, Akbar. I really don't know." She met his eyes again. "One thing I do know is that he must be stopped. If he is capable of such action as we heard today, then he is no better than Palpatine, as well as being much more competent."

Akbar nodded, the harsh white light overhead gleaming off his pinkish-orange head. "Provided that it is true," he added thoughtfully. "The Emperor was ever a master of deception."


	28. Chapter 28: Chaos Descending

**Chapter 28: Chaos Descending**

_Warning: there is a character death in this chapter. _

Mara had been expecting the dungeon level, but this was something else entirely. It looked more like a cave - rough walls and ceiling complete with stalactites. The floor had been smoothed, so it was being used for something. She looked back inside the turbolift to see Luke sink to the floor, exhausted. Not surprising, after that performance.

Mara sensed the dark side of the Force being used right next to her - it sounded like the Hand was trying to call to someone. Mara interrupted this by jumping on his head. Blaster bolts flew everywhere, and the fight rapidly spilled out into the cave-corridor. Mara wasn't paying it it much attention, being far too busy trying to kill the other Hand.

This proved to be a lot more difficult than it sounded. The stranger was much bigger than her and was even stronger than he looked. He knocked her off him with a blast of dark side Force and came running back at her with his lightsaber. Her blaster went flying across the corridor. Chewbacca trod on it as he wrestled an enemy Stormtrooper.

The Hand then attacked her with his lightsaber. He had a ferocity that was totally unlike all the lessons Luke had given her in lightsaber technique. No style, no subtlety, but the physical strength behind his hack and slash kept nearly jarring her lightsaber from her hands.

"Duck!" yelled Han Solo. Mara did, and a hail of blaster bolts went through where her head had been, grazing the Hand's head. The Hand let out a wild scream of animal rage and launched himself at the Stormtroopers. Mara swung her lightsaber at his back, but he was moving too fast and she missed by two inches. The Hand cut the troopers in half and lunged for Solo. Solo had no weapon, and tried to dive out of the way but there was nowhere to go.

"No!" Luke cried, stumbling out of the turbolift, and throwing out his hands, pushing the Hand with a massive blast of Force energy across the cave-corridor into the far wall with an audible crack. The Hand slumped to the floor, his head at an odd angle. Luke ran to Han, but Mara stood where she was and looked around, pushing aside the fact that Luke had just used the Dark Side to kill someone. She would worry about that later, if there was a later.

The Hand was definitely dead, as were four of the troopers, two of them theirs. "Sound off," she said.

"Tannu"

"L741"

"L768. They got Sarvil and L720 - they are dead." Mara nodded, and walked over to Luke and Chewbacca where they stood over Han. He was dead. Even Chewbacca was silent - apparently he could be too upset to speak.

She opened her mouth to speak, but one of the Stormtroopers yelled "Reinforcements!"

She whirled, taking in about 20 Stormtroopers and four Imperial Guards heading their way down the cave-corridor. "Enter the turbo -" she started to yell, then remembered but it wasn't working. "This way!" she cried, pointing down the corridor away from the Stormtroopers. Since this floor existed, the corridor ought to go somewhere, and at least it was away from the troopers.

They ran. Chewbacca picked up Han's body, and Luke and Mara kept the Stormtroopers pursuing them away by deflecting their own shots back at them. They ran down the winding cave-corridor and hoped it would come out somewhere useful. "Vader's teeth!" She heard Tannu shout from up ahead. That didn't sound good.

She skidded around the corner and right into a set of heavy blast doors that were firmly shut. Beside them, Tannu was tapping commands frantically into a computer keypad. She moved to go and go help him, and then realized she was holding a lightsaber.

She ran to the door, yelling "Luke, the door!" and jammed her lightsaber into the door.

"You get it!" Luke said, "I'll hold them off." Being a full blast door, making an entrance was neither easy nor short, the thick durasteel resisting her lightsaber. Luke and the remaining Stormtroopers held of the attackers. A couple of blaster bolts hit the door around her, but none of them hit anyone - although the enemy didn't seem to be doing quite so well as Luke deflected shots back to their sources.

Finally her lightsaber melted an entry through the door, and she kicked the cutout section in. She peered through the doorway she'd forced. Her danger sense warned her just in time as she jerked away from where a blaster bolt would have hit her. So they had enemies on the other side too... she gestured to the Stormtroopers to come follow her, and charged through the doorway, trusting to the Force and her lightsaber to deflect any more blaster bolts. She was met with a rain of bolts that she only barely managed to deflect.

As she fought, she automatically took in her surroundings. This part of the basement wasn't a cave. It was a fully equipped cloning laboratory, there were several bodies on the floor - one of them wearing Prophet black robes, a man fiddling with a thermal detonator, and there was a man jumping at her holding a lightsaber. "Stop!" she yelled. "We're both on Thrawn's side."

The man hesitated, and the shooting stopped. "You're destroying the backup Palpatine clones, aren't you?" Mara demanded.

"Yes."

"Well, get on with it then and stop shooting at us! We just retrieved Luke Skywalker and there are a bunch of Stormtroopers after us. Let us in."

Mara stuck her head back through the door. "They are on our side!" Mara yelled back out the door. "Get in here now."

"We're about to blow this place up," said the man. "You want to be getting out of here, not in."

"There are too many of them. We can't get out," she said as the others came in the door, Chewbacca bent double and still carrying Han. Luke slammed the broken pieces of the door up behind them and focused as they settled back into place, heat fusing them around the edges. "That should hold them a few minutes, Luke said, "but not longer." He looked around him and gawked. "So this is where..."

"Countdown beginning," said a mechanical voice coming from the thermal detonator, which was now attached to one of the cloning tanks. "Detonation in 3 minutes."

"I told you to leave that for a minute!" the strange Force-wielder said.

"Sorry sir."

"It's too late now. Out that door," the Force-wielder said, pointing to a small door in the other side of the cloning chamber with his lightsaber. Warily, the two groups ran to the door. It was locked, but after the Force-wielder stuck his lightsaber through the lock that was no longer a problem. They spread out into the hallway beyond. It was narrow, and the floor wasn't quite even. They ran along the narrow twisting and turning corridor.

Behind them came an immense explosion that knocked them off their feet and shook everything around them. All of the lights went out, leaving them in total darkness. Parts of the ceiling gave way behind them. Close at hand, dust and small pieces of stalactites rained down. Silence fell. Someone coughed.

________

The Emperor sat on his throne aboard his flagship the Eclipse and frowned. Something was happening on Byss. He wasn't certain what it was, but he didn't like it. Unfortunately, it would wreck havoc on carefully laid plans if he left the Aeleni system before even attempting negotiations. He called up Byss on the holocom, and was displeased to get no answer. The Byss point of the holocom wasn't functioning. Perhaps Luke had gone out of control with him away?

Palpatine chuckled. His new apprentice was showing spirit at last. To be honest, he had been quite disappointed in the boy so far. He just stood there like a broken droid, and was barely attentive to his lessons. Still, he couldn't be allowed to cause havok.

He called up one of his Star Destroyer captains and ordered him to take his ship to Byss and find out what was going on - and kill one of the hostages if Luke was out of control. "Yes, Your Majesty," the captain said, and Palpatine dismissed him.

He needed to focus on what was about to happen here. Thrawn might think he had all the answers, but the longer they sat here, the longer the Outbound Flight rumors had to get out of control, and the longer his tame scientists had to create the bioweaponry painting. If he chose to fight, how could he fight against a Sith Master of Palpatine's ability? There was no way that Thrawn could have ysalamiri on all of his ships...

A/N:

1) The Emperor's Hand Luke and Mara fought was named Vess Kogo, and is a very obscure EU-canonical character.

2) For those of you missing Thrawn these last couple of chapters, be assured that the story will be shifting back in that direction shortly. It's just that so much is happening on Byss that really needs to be told first...

3) Regarding Han's death: People die in fights, and the odds caught up with him.


	29. Chapter 29: In the Other Chamber

**Chapter 29: In The Other Chamber**

Mara ignited her lightsaber, giving them light to see by. "Sound off," she said. "Jade."

"L741."

"L768."

"Tannu, but could you please get off my foot?"

"Ketryn, for you, certainly."

"Luke."

"Yowl."

"That's all of my group," said Mara.

"Project Blue, sound off," the strange force wielder said. "Relkati."

"L143."

"Yolo Mar."

"L122."

"Arisi."

"Anyone injured?"

Silence, then "Sprained wrist" from Ketryn. "I don't think I'll be doing any fighting unless I absolutely have to."

"We shouldn't be doing any fighting, if all goes well. I think we took out the lot that was chasing you, Jade. Let's have a little more light here..." Luke and Relkati both lit their lightsabers, brightening the eerie light enough to see clearly. Everyone stood up and brushed themselves off.

"The way behind us is blocked," said Mara, "so we need to go forward."

"Yes," said Relkati. "Let's get started." They walked forward carefully over the debris-strewn floor. Five or ten minutes later, they came out into a small chamber - another cloning chamber - although this one was very small and only had three cloning vats. They were all in use, but Mara couldn't see any clones inside. "Do you have any more thermal detonators?" Mara asked.

"A couple," admitted Relkati. "We weren't sure how many cloning vats we'd find in the main chamber and we didn't know that this chamber existed at all." He moved closer to one of the cylinders and looked inside. He jerked backwards. "That's not Palpatine!" he said. "We've got to get them out."

Mara moved closer to get a better look. Relkati was right; it definitely wasn't Palpatine. The dark side may have done terrible things to Palpatine's body, but at no point was he ever blue. "Thrawn," she said, stunned. She moved to the next cylinder. A human toddler with blond hair. "Luke, come over here," she said. I want you to identify this one.

Luke shook himself visibly and came over and peered into the vat. "He looks familiar," Luke admitted "but it's not me." He beckoned Relkati closer. "Do you recognise this one?"

"Check the label on the end of the vat," suggested Arisi. "The technicians usually put a card there with the name of the person being cloned." Luke looked. "Darth Vader," he read aloud. "Oh Force!"

Mara walked to the next one. It was female and had red hair. With a sick feeling, Mara Jade checked the label. "You conniving bastard, I never gave you my permission..." she said. "That's me in there!"

"I'm not leaving my father here for Palpatine to twist all over again," said Luke.

"I'm not leaving Thrawn to his nonexistent mercy either," said Relkati. "Arisi, how can we get them out without hurting them?"

"The thing with clones is you have to get them breathing," said Arisi. "You can just break into the cylinders, and I think we're going to have to because we don't have time to do the full wake up routine. They going to be really confused, quite weak, and we're going to have to carry them. It's a good thing they were started so recently."

"Let's start," said Relkati. He turned to L143 and L122. "Go out the side door and investigate what it leads to. We are looking for a way out." He turned back to Arisi. "What do we do?"

"You open the top - I'll get started on Thrawn here, and Luke and Mara watch me and do as I do." Arisi clambered up behind the vat and slid the top open. She then waited for Luke and Mara to do the same with their clones. "This is the tricky part," she said. "Don't do this - just watch and I'll help you with yours in a minute." She then did something complicated with the controls of the vat. The tiny clone slid free in the clear bluish liquid. It twitched, then wriggled a little. Netting rose up from the bottom of the tank, pulling the clone to the surface of the liquid. Arisi in reached in and pulled it out.

Mara could get a better look at it now. Or him. If he was human, Mara would have guessed him to be about two. Arisi clambered down, holding the clone. He wasn't breathing, but she laid him on the floor and pushed on his chest a couple of times. The little clone gasped and coughed, then started breathing more normally. He opened his eyes and looked about. His face crinkled up and he started to cry. Relkati knelt down beside him and started talking soothingly in a language Mara had never heard before. If anything, the little clone yelled louder still. "I didn't think my accent was that bad," muttered Relkati.

"He should be all right now. I'll do Darth Vader next, shall I?" said Arisi.

"Anakin," said Luke. "His name is Anakin Skywalker."

"Whatever you want to call him," said Arisi. "We are wasting time." Little Anakin was awakened without further incident, although his shrieks started Thrawn off again. Arisi then turned to the Mara clone and awakened her as well.

Mara couldn't suppress a sense of wonder as the little girl opened her green eyes looked wildly around the room, and wailed "mummy!" She was looking straight at Mara, and Mara suddenly realized the little girl meant her. Little Mara reached for original Mara, who picked the child up, then realized she wasn't sure what to do with her.

_I'm a parent_, Mara realized suddenly. _ This kid doesn't have anyone else. Of all the messes for me to get into... I know nothing about parenting! _She sneaked a look at Luke's face. He looked dumbstruck. She looked back down at the child clinging to her and wondered what to do with her.

Relkati stood up, holding the Thrawn clone. "There is a tunnel leading to the surface, complete with a modified assault shuttle in a concealed hanger. A getaway ship for Palpatine clones, I suspect. We cannot possibly go back up the turbolift looking like this."

"It's broken anyway," said Mara. "Let's get going to this ship." They walked to the ship, carrying three toddlers and Han's body.

The ship itself proved as good as advertised. Relkati quickly entered his code, and they were on board.

__________

Far away in the new Republic, Leia stopped in the middle of a speech, her eyes locked on something elsewhere. "Han!" she cried, swaying a little. "No!" Winter took her arm, speaking urgently, but Leia did not hear. She closed her eyes. "He's dead," she whispered. "Han is dead."

___________

Thrawn was not pleased when one of his intelligence operatives turned up in person in a small ship. It was unlikely that he had broken their cover, but this had better be important. He forgave him once he heard what the man had to say.

So Palpatine was trying to make out at he was a heartless killer for destroying _Outbound Flight_, was he? Never mind that that appellation would be even better used to describe his accuser, this was going to be a problem. The rumors were garbled, but in such a way as to make his actions look considerably worse than they had in fact been. He questioned the man for details before sending him away and walking back to his secondary bridge, his favorite place to think.

There were at least four versions of the destruction of _Outbound Flight_ going around and probably more by now. None of them were good, although one would be obvious as lunacy to anyone with a functioning brain. Even if he were a monster who ate other sentient beings for dinner, why would he attack such a heavily defended target to find his victims? And what would he have done with 50,000 corpses at one time? A pity the others were not so obviously far-fetched. Presuming they had reached Luke and Mara, they were likely to damage and reduce cooperation from them.

Ironic, but this was likely to do more damage to his reputation than the whole mess with the Noghri, despite the fact that it was morally less evil. People empathized better with members of their own species than with a race of needle-toothed death commandos. First the Noghri and now this... Thrawn had to wonder what other dark secrets events would drag out of his past. At least there wasn't anything worse than the Noghri in there, save one.

He could use the evil and dangerous Jedi angle to his favour in the Empire, but that would decidedly not work on Luke or Mara. Explaining to them would take time, and presumed that they would in fact turn up tomorrow at the appointed time and stick around long enough to listen.

How likely were they to go directly back to the Rebels? He thought for a few moments. Mara would consider herself honour bound to and Luke would normally treat her word of honour as if it were his own. But with _Outbound Flight_ in the mix it was a possibility that they wouldn't turn up or would sit aside during the battle and wait - no, not if they saw the _Chimaera_ locked in battle with Palpatine. Luke did not do neutrality well.

It was possible, however, that they would go directly for Palpatine rather than talking to him first. That would be awkward, but not disastrous. Thrawn sighed, and sat down in his command chair. Things were getting terribly complicated now, with no way to simplify them. That always meant danger. Even he could keep only so many balls in the air at once.

He called up the battle plans on the screen in front of him, checking possible impacts of Luke and Mara attempting to take out Palpatine on their own.


	30. Chapter 30: On the Way to the Chimaera

**Chapter 30**

The start of their voyage was uneventful, which surprised Mara more than a little. She had thought they might well have to shoot their way out, but once up the reason for their easy exit became obvious. Everybody was very busy fussing around the Citadel. It didn't take much to see why. It was a good thing they had got themselves down past that broken turbolift when they had - and it wasn't only the turbolift that was broken.

There was a big chunk out of the side of the support pillar through which the turbolift ran. The whole structure looked rather precarious, although the Citadel had not fallen. The left side of the pillar had a new paint job. It was now blood red which made it look like Palpatine's fortress was bleeding.

Thrawn had certainly given both teams a spectacular diversion. She looked back to where both teams and former prisoners sat scattered around the small ship: in shock couches, at weapons stations and sprawled on the floor. Somehow she doubted the two teams had ever been supposed to meet - or that she had been supposed to rescue Han and Chewbacca.

They went to hyperspace.

__________

Luke Skywalker came back into the ship's common room, leaned against the wall and stared blankly around him. Anakin Skywalker had finally gone to sleep on the couch. Mara sat at the other end of it, little Mara on her lap, leaning her head against the back. The force wielder called Relkati was sitting on another crash couch with the Thrawn clone, and the assorted mission personnel sat wherever they could find a space.

Chewbacca was still sitting by the medical station where they had put Han's body. Occasional howls rent the air, but Luke did not know what to say to comfort him and had ended up creeping quietly away and leaving him with his grief.

Luke rubbed his arm across his eyes. He really didn't want to think about Han's death, or about how he'd lost control afterwards. Using the Dark Side, and using it for revenge... Anger rose in him again against Palpatine, but he forced it down. He couldn't do anything about it now, and anger would only make things worse.

"So," he said, "what happens next? Are you coming back to the new Republic with us, Relkati, or would you rather be dropped off somewhere in Imperial territory under Thrawn's control?"

"I'm not going anywhere in the new Republic, especially with Thrawve," Relkati answered. "My orders are to report back immediately on having destroyed the Palpatine clones."

"Actually, we're all going to report to the Chimaera," said Mara. "It was a condition on getting Thrawn's help in rescuing you and your friends. I gave my word."

"You're handing me over to Thrawn," said Luke. "I didn't agree to this. Why didn't you tell me that when you turned up in the first place?"

"We didn't exactly have time to stand around chatting, if you'll remember. I thought that it was more important to get you out of their... look, it's not what you think. Thrawn wants our help against the Palpatine clone, and he has promised safe conduct for you, Chewbacca and me back to New Republic lines after the clone has been defeated. He also wants to offer us a job if we want to stay on, not that I think you have any interest in that."

"You trust him on this? After what he did to Karrde?"

Mara winced visibly. "Remember how he didn't tell Thrawn that he'd caught you, and then helped you to escape?"

"Yes," said Luke.

"Karrde didn't just avoid mentioning that he'd caught you - he lied outright to Thrawn's face. Helping you escape then caused the deaths of a fair number of Thrawn's soldiers. I think Thrawn considered us totally untrustworthy after it. When I challenged him on his lies to us, he got angry. I think we may actually be able to trust him, at least until the Palpatine clone has been defeated. I wouldn't vouch for five minutes afterwards."

"I see. But we're not just talking about Karrde. There is the Noghri as well. Thrawn is seriously not trustworthy."

"True enough. But you owe him your freedom, so if you value your honor and mine we need to go and visit him like I said we would. We can run away later." _ And in any case, should we be discussing this in front of his operatives?_

_True enough_. "Mara, I... When Han died I killed that Hand with the Dark Side."

"I noticed," Mara said. Then, more gently, she added "We can't change the past."

"Palpatine has been training me in the Dark Side. I tried to learn as little as possible, and until today I had never hurt anyone with it."

"Would it have been better if you had killed him with the Light Side?" asked Relkati.

"Yes," said Luke. "Because if you use the Dark Side it distorts your thinking and you end up killing people unjustly and doing evil for no other reason than that you can. I do not wish to be another Vader."

"In any case," said Mara, "just what are you, Relkati? Another Emperor's Hand?"

"No. I was in the same initial training courses as you were, I think, but I failed the Force part. I couldn't hear the Emperor's voice clearly enough."

"A failed Emperor's Hand. Interesting. So how did you come to be working for Thrawn?"

"It is a long story. It is also classified, so I'm afraid I can't tell you the details." Relkati smiled. "I can tell you that I'd rather work for him than for the Emperor any day of the week and I don't envy you your status."

Luke broke in. "So we are going to pay a visit to Thrawn. That should be interesting. I'd really like to see how he justifies trying to kidnap my infant niece and nephew for C'Baoth to warp." Luke frowned, and looked at his father sleeping beside him on the couch. "Are the kids safe around him? Thrawn didn't say anything about safe conduct for them."

"No C'Baoth, so why would he want them?" said Mara.

"To keep them out of New Republic hands, probably. Also, he's already proven that he can find a use for any force wielder he can convince to serve him. Surely we could stop somewhere and let Chewbacca take the kids back with him to the Republic?"

Mara hesitated, but Relkati shook his head. "You're not taking Thrawve anywhere in the New Republic. I won't allow the New Republic to take vengeance on this child for Thrawn's supposed crimes."

"They aren't supposed, they are very real, said Luke. And you misunderstand us completely if you think that we would take revenge on a two year old for the sins of his father. I am Darth Vader's son, so I know what I'm talking about. If they were to take revenge on anyone it would be me."

"I am not risking it. I won't have him told a pack of lies, and used as a tool, either."

Luke spread his hands. "Whatever you say. But the other two should go to the New Republic, as should Han's body."

They continued arguing for a while, but soon realized that they had only one ship, and that Luke and Chewbacca were vastly outnumbered by Thrawn's adherents. It also occurred to Luke that getting a firsthand view of Thrawn might be a good idea. The New Republic knew so little about the man that any knowledge would be valuable.

Luke looked down at the tiny clone of his father. He was still asleep and looked so very small and innocent. He would keep him safe somehow. Luke found himself remembering the real Darth Vader. He had been worse than Thrawn, once. And Luke had saved him. Might that be possible with Thrawn?


	31. Chapter 31: Medical Distractions

**Chapter 31: Medical Distractions  
**

Thrawn woke with a groan, feeling the all too familiar exhaustion and pounding skull. He opened his eyes, only one of which opened fully. He was lying on the bathroom floor, wrapped in towels, with one storm trooper kneeling beside him looking anxiously at him while the other spoke into his com button. He must have had a seizure. And judging by how wet he was, in the shower. Of all the embarrassing situations... He licked his lips and spoke: "I'm awake now. You do not need to get medical to come and collect me."

The vision in his left eye blurred badly again. Now why didn't his left eye work? He pulled his hand up to investigate. It felt bruised.

"You had a seizure and fell, sir," said one of the troopers, Thrawn wasn't quite sure which one he was. "You smacked yourself in the face pretty hard. It looks like you'll have a spectacular black eye by tomorrow. You may have a concussion as well - I can't tell clearly with your eyes. You need to go to sick bay so that they can use the big scanners."

Thrawn grimaced. He had no desire whatever to haul himself down to sickbay, and he had even less desire to be put on a hover bed and carted down there by other people. However, he could could not afford to have an undiagnosed concussion when there was likely to be a battle tomorrow. He didn't feel concussed, but it was true that his head hurt pretty badly. "I can walk," he said to the worried trooper. "If you'll get me my clothes, I'll get dressed and we can go down there immediately."

The trooper handed him his clothes, and he got dressed. It wasn't easy with the vision in one eye blurred and feeling exhausted and dizzy, but he did it. He then insisted that he was going to walk to sickbay, much to Stormtrooper Loril's disapproval. It was only a short turbolift ride away, but by the end of it his legs were shaking and he was leaning heavily on Loril for support. Finally, they made it to sickbay, where the doctors put a bacta patch on his eye and told him he didn't have a concussion and simply needed to rest. He was too tired to walk back, so he spent the rest of the night in sickbay.

Next morning, Thrawn looked at his face in the mirror and smothered a laugh. Where the bacta patch itself had been, the bruising was minimal and half-healed. In the larger area around where the patch had been the skin was now far more black than blue. So now he would have the joy of having the entire bridge plus the Imperial Clone staring at his eye and wondering what had happened to him. It looked exactly like someone had punched him in the face. Thrawn sighed, and walked back to his quarters.

Still, at least the siezure hadn't happened on the bridge in the middle of a battle. Thrawn frowned as he combed his hair. With the increased stress of a third side to the civil war, the seizures were happening more often despite the medication. Given the way things were going, he was going to have a seizure on the bridge in the near future. Thrawn put the problem aside for later consideration. He didn't have time to deal with it right now. Back at his quarters, Thrawn headed to his computer console to check for any events that had come up over the night.

_______

When Vice-Admiral Pellaeon arrived at Thrawn's secondary bridge to discuss final points for the beginning of the upcoming battle, he couldn't help but be glad when the storm troopers greeted him politely before announcing him and letting him in. So different from Rukh... and so much easier to deal with.

"Come in," Thrawn said. "Thus far, all appears to be on schedule for a battle rather than talks."

"Byss's communications are out?"

"Yes. And the Imperial Clone will soon know that something is terribly wrong."

"Do you know when?"

"He will already know that something is wrong, but it will not be enough to turn him from his current path. The exact timing depends on when Mara and Luke arrive in the system. That should be between 11:00 and 12:00 but the exact timing depends on whether they manage to rescue Solo and the Wookie or not. As for the battle plans themselves, I have made an alteration that you should see." Thrawn pointed to something on his view screen and Pellaeon stepped closer to get a better look.

He also got a better look at Thrawn's face. He blinked, and lost track of what Thrawn was saying. _Do I mention it?_ he wondered. _No, I'm sure he knows._ But it was too late. Thrawn had already noticed his inattention.

Thrawn raised an eyebrow. "I slipped in the shower," he said. "A seizure, but I am well again now. If you will look at the position of the starfighters here," he pointed, "this will be vital for distracting the Eclipse..."

__________

A little later that morning, Thrawn and Pelleon stood on the bridge and waited for the ship to come out of hyperspace. With barely a ripple of a shimmer, it did.

The Eclipse was not there yet, nor was any other ship in sight. "Are there any ships in range of sensors?" Thrawn asked.

"No, Admiral."

"Inform me when one arrives." Thrawn sat down in his command chair to wait. Palpatine would come, and he would come in the Eclipse even if the agreement had been for a smaller ship. He might, however, be fashionably late.

They had arrived a few minutes early themselves, so they waited nearly half an hour for Palpatine to arrive. Given the shortened time for discussion and the certainty of battle, that left Thrawn free to goad Palpatine into foolish action. He found himself thoroughly looking forward to it. There were things he'd been longing to say for months, years... even decades.


	32. Chapter 32: Then Let All Lies Be Ended!

**Chapter 32: Then Let All Lies be Ended!**

When the Eclipse finally shimmered into existence, they were hailed immediately.

"Why hello my former Admiral." said Palpatine via the holocom. "We meet again." The Imperial Clone smiled, showing the usual mouthful of decayed teeth. How he had managed that as a recently decanted clone with the best dentistry money could buy, Thrawn could only speculate. A very special tooth-veneer, perhaps? One nobody else would ever want...

"Your face seems somewhat the worse for wear. However did you come by that black eye?" asked the Imperial Clone, still smiling. "Having trouble controlling your troops?"

"No, my people are commendably loyal." Thrawn smiled politely back at his former master. "How are your forces of late? General Rokarn sends his regards."

"I am glad to hear it," said Palpatine. "Do remind him of the fate of traitors as stated in clause 174 of the Emergency Measures Act."

"I believe he is already aware of the penalties," said Thrawn, "as are the other former officers and moffs of yours whom I have had the opportunity to meet recently."

"They will regret it when I have consolidated my power," said Palpatine. "Those whom I allow to live will gain no share in the rise of the Empire restored."

"That presumes that it is you who restores the Empire," said Thrawn. "I have seen little evidence of you doing anything other than undermining what I and those serving with me have managed to restore."

"Have a care what you say, traitor."

"Why should I, before an unstable pretender to a throne that is currently occupied by rebels?"

"Stormtroopers, arrest this man! Order 366."

Thrawn remained in his chair, fingers interlaced. He'd long ago determined where the true loyalty of all stormtroopers assigned to the bridge lay. No one on the bridge moved. The Imperial Clone's eyes bulged.

"They don't recognize you as the Emperor," Thrawn said softly. "Nor do I recognize you. You are, at best, a poor copy with delusions of grandeur."

"Die, traitor!" The Imperial Clone reached forward with one hand and closed his fist, then opened it, and dropped his hand. "No matter," he said, suddenly calm again. "You cannot hide behind ysalamiri for the rest of your life. But for now, I believe we had talks in mind, although how one conducts such talks with a known traitor I really do not know."

"Who is the traitor? I try to restore the Empire that the true Emperor Palpatine built, and you try to have me murdered for it. I am no traitor to the ideals of the Empire, nor have I ever been."

The Imperial Clone chuckled. "Oh really? Your very appearance denies that, Thrawn. You are not human, much though you like to pretend otherwise."

"Emperor Palpatine frequently stated that the was Empire was for the good and protection of all citizens of the galaxy. He also promoted me to the position of Grand Admiral."

"You know full well that twaddle was merely for public consumption, Thrawn." There were a couple of gasps from the crew pit, quickly stifled.

Thrawn ignored his crew's reaction. "So you never intended the Empire to be for the good and the protection of the citizens of the galaxy?" Dead silence from the crew pits.

The Imperial Clone sputtered indignantly. "You play with words," he said when he could formulate a response. "So you admit I am the original Palpatine returned?"

"No, I do not," said Thrawn. "Were you the true Palpatine, you would not have answered as you have." _You would have been just as nasty, but you would have been far more difficult to catch._

"You are a fine one to claim the moral high ground," said the Imperial Clone. "I could tell tales that would freeze the blood of those officers and crew standing right behind you. How would you like me to tell them about Outbound Flight? Or the Serrasta homeworld? You would do far better to come to terms with me while you still can. Rumors of the fate of Outbound Flight are already out. How do you think you will control the galaxy, when they're crying in horror at what you have done?"

"By letting all lies be ended! I will rule with more ease than you, when I dump all the classified files of what actually happened in those cases and who ordered them all over the holonet. As for the Serrasta, I think you will find it very hard to drum up sympathy for a race that murdered or enslaved all others nearby." _Even if I wish I could have found another way... I know you reveled in their deaths, but I most certainly did not._

"I don't need the ill-educated masses goodwill. I can change their minds with the Force."

"You cannot change the minds of the entire galaxy's population and hold them forever. And how will you fight the Far Outsiders" - Thrawn leaned forward to emphasize the point. "They are not even visible in the Force, and the day of their invasion draws ever nearer. Long ago I swore that I would do whatever is necessary to protect the people of this galaxy and I still hold true to that oath." _ It is perhaps the only one I have never broken. "_Those world wreckers - no sane being destroys what he wishes to rule. Give up. Whatever happens here, you will never rule the galaxy for long."

At that moment a beep and flashing light in the corner of the console directly in front of Thrawn alerted him to the arrival of a small ship that was trying to hide in the outer reaches of the system. The vehicle was an assault shuttle, and not the same ship that Mara and Luke had been expected to use, but it had to be them. Thrawn entered a command: Fleet Come In.

A/N: I spent a long time wondering whose homeworld Thrawn might have destroyed, but I can find no information. If anyone knows, I'd love to hear from you.


End file.
